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BEDTIME STORIES 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 

(THE JUMPING FROGS) 


BY 

HOWARD R. GARIS 

u 

Author of “Sammie and Susie Littletail,” “ Uncle 
W lGGILY’S AUTOMOBILE, ,, “DADDY TAKES US CAMP- 
ING,” 4 ‘The Smith Boys,” “The Island 
Boys,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY LOUIS mSA 


R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

18 EAST SEVENTEENTH STREET 

NEW YORK 


CHILDREN’S BOOKS 

By HOWARD R. GARIS 

THE BEDTIME STO RIES SERIES 

CLOTH, FINELY DECORATED COVER, EIGHT COLORED 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

Price per volume, 75 cents • postpaid 

Each book contains a story for every day of 
the month 


SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL 
31 Rabbit Stories 

JOHNNIE AND BILLY BUSHYTAIL 
31 Squirrel Stories 

LULU, ALICE AND JIMMY WIBBLEWOBBLE 
31 Duck Stories 

JACKIE AND BEETLE BOW-WOW 
31 Dog Stories 

BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG 
31 Guinea Pig Stories 

JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT 
31 Kitten Stories 

CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK 
31 Chicken Stories 

TEDDIE AND BECK IE STUBTAIL 
31 Nice Bear Stories 

BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL 
31 Jumping Frog Stories 

NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL 
31 Goat Stories 

THE UNCLE WIGGILY SERIES 

of the BEDTIME STORIES 
EIGHT COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS 
Price 75 cents each, postpaid 


UNCLE WIGGILY’S ADVENTURES 

31 of the Old Gentleman Rabbit Stories 
UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRAVELS 

31 more Old Gentleman Rabbit Stories 
UNCLE WIGGILY’S FORTUNE 

31 other of the Gentleman Rabbit Stories 
UNCLE WIGGILY’S AUTOMOBILE 
31 Surprising Rabbit Stories 
UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE 
31 Ocean-wave Rabbit Stories 
UNCLE WIGGILY’S AIRSHIP 
31 High-flying Rabbit Stories 


SOMETHI NG NEW 

THE DADDY SERIES 

Colored cover and frontispiece, and three draw- 
ings in black and white 
Price 40 cents, per volume, postpaid 
Fun, adventure, amusement, with some nature and 
outdoor instruction, Jfor Little Folk 

DADDY TAKES US CAMPING 
DADDY TAKES US FISHING 
DADDY TAKES US TO THE CIRCUS 
DADDY TAKES US SKATING 
DADDY TAKES US COASTING 
DADDY TAKES US AFTER FLOWERS 


( Other volumes in preparation) 

All about a little boy, a little girl, and their Dear 
Daddy 


Copyright, 1915, by 
R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 


BULLY AND BAWLY NO- TAIL 


A5 0. 


-d 


6 


The stories herein contained appeared originally in 
the Evening News, of Newark, N. J., where (so many 
children and their parents have been kind enough to 
say) they gave pleasure to a number of little folks 
and grown-ups also. Permission to issue the stories 
in book form was kindly granted by the publisher and 
editor of the News, to whom the author extends his 
thanks. 


* 


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CONTENTS 


Story Page 

I BULLY AND BAWLY GO SWIMMING 9 

II BULLY MAKES A WATER WHEEL 15 

III BAWLY AND UNCLE WIGGILY 21 

IV BULLY’S AND BAWLY’S BIG JUMP. 27 

V GRANDPA CROAKER DIGS A WELL .... 34 

VI PAPA NO-TAIL IN TROUBLE 40 

VII BULLY NO-TAIL PLAYS MARBLES 46 

VIII BAWLY AND THE SOLDIER HAT 52 

IX GRANDPA CROAKER AND THE UMBRELLA 58 
X BAWLY NO-TAIL AND JOLLIE LONGTAIL... 65 

XI BULLY AND THE WATER BOTTLE 71 

XII BAWLY NO-TAIL GOES HUNTING 77 

XIII PAPA NO-TAIL AND THE GIANT 83 

XIV BAWLY AND THE CHURCH STEEPLE 90 

XV BULLY AND THE BASKET OF CHIPS 97 

XVI BAWLY AND HIS WHISTLES 104 

XVII GRANDPA CROAKER AND UNCLE WIGGILY 110 
XVIII MRS. NO-TAIL AND MRS. LONGTAIL 117 

XIX BAWLY AND ARABELLA CHICK 123 

XX BULLY AND DOTTIE TROT 129 

XXI GRANDPA AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG 135 

XXII PAPA NO-TAIL AND NANNIE GOAT 141 

XXIII MRS. NO-TAIL AND NELLIE CHIP-CHIP 148 

7 


8 


Contents 


XXIV BULLY AND ALICE WIBBLEWOBBLE 155 

XXV BAWLY AND LULU WIBBLEWOBBLE 160 

XXVI BULLY NO-TAIL AND KITTIE KAT 168 

XXVII HOW BAWLY HELPED HIS TEACHER 174 

XXVIII BULLY AND SAMMIE LITTLETAIL 180 

XXIX BULLY AND BAWLY AT THE CIRCUS 187 

XXX BULLY AND BAWLY PLAY INDIAN 194 

XXXI THE FROGS' FAREWELL HOP 200 


BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL 


STORY I 

BULLY AND BAWLY GO SWIMMING 

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, 
there were two little frog boys who lived in a 
little pond near a nice big farm. It wasn’t very 
far from where Peetie and Jackie Bow-Wow, the 
puppy dogs, had their home, and the frogs’ house 
was right next door to the pen where Lulu and 
Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble the ducks lived. 

There was Bully No-Tail, and his brother 
Bawly No-Tail, and the reason Bawly had such a 
funny name was because when he was a little 
baby he used to cry a good bit. And once he cried 
so much that he made a lot more water in the pond 
than should have been there, and it ran over, 
just like when you put too much milk in your 
glass, and made the ground all wet. 

The last name of the frogs was “ No- Tail,” 
because, being frogs, you see, they had no tails. 

But now Bawly was larger, and he didn’t cry 
9 


10 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


so much, I’m glad to say. And with the frog 
boys lived their papa and mamma, and also a 
nice, big, green and yellow spotted frog who was 
named Grandpa Croaker. Oh, he was one of the 
nicest frogs I have ever known, and I have met 
quite a number. 

One day when Bully and Bawly were hopping 
along on the ground, close to the edge of the 
pond, Bully suddenly said: 

“ Bawly, I think I can beat you in a swimming 
race.” 

“ I don’t believe you can,” spoke Bawly, as he 
thoughtfully scratched his left front leg on a 
piece of hickory bark. 

“ Well, well try,” said Bully. “ We’ll see who 
can first swim to the other side of the pond, and 
whoever does it will get a stick of peppermint 
candy.” 

“ Where can we get the candy? ” asked Bawly. 
“ Have you got it? For if you have I wish you’d 
give me a bite before we jump in the water. 
Bully.” 

“ No, I haven’t it,” replied his brother. “ But 
I know Grandpa Croaker will give it to us after 
the race. Come on, let’s jump in.” 

So the next minute into the pond jumped those 
two frog boys, and they didn’t take off their 
shoes or their stockings, nor even their coats or 


Bully and Bawly Go Swimming 11 


waists, nor yet their neckties. For you see they 
wore the kind of clothes which water couldn’t 
hurt, as they were made of rubber, like a raincoat. 
Their mamma had to make them that kind, be- 
cause they went in the water so often. 

Into the pond the frogs jumped, and tb>ey be- 
gan swimming as fast as they could. First Bully 
was a little distance ahead, and then Bawly would 
kick out his front legs and his hind legs, and he 
would be in the lead. 

“ I’m going to win! I’ll get the peppermint 
candy! ” Bawly called to his brother, winking his 
two eyes right in the water, as easily as you can 
put your doll to sleep, or play a game of marbles. 

“]\ T o. I’ll beat!” declared Bully. “ But if 
I get the candy I’ll give you some.” 

So they swam on, faster and faster, making the 
water splash up all around them like a steamboat 
going to a picnic. 

Well, the frogs were almost half way across 
the pond, when Lulu and Alice Wibblew'obble, 
the duck girls, came out of their pen. They had 
just washed their faces and their yellow bills, 
and had put on their new hair ribbons, so they 
looked very nice, and proper. 

“ Oh, see Bully and Bawly having a swimming 
race ! ” exclaimed Lulu. “ I think Bully will 
win!” 


12 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ I think Bawly will! ” cried Alice. “ See, He 
is ahead! ” 

“ No, Bully is ahead now,” called Lulu, and 
surely enough so Bully was, having made a sud- 
den jump in the water. 

And then, all of a sudden, before you could 
take all the seeds out of an apple or an orange, 
if you had one with seeds in, Bawly disappeared 
from sight down under the water. He vanished 
just as the milk goes out of baby’s bottle when 
she drinks it all up. 

“ Oh, look! ” cried Lulu. “ Bawly is going to 
swim under water! ” 

“ That’s so he can win the race easier, I guess,” 
spoke Alice. 

“ What’s that ? ” asked Bully, wiggling his two 
eyes. 

“ ‘ Your brother has gone down under the 
water! ” cried the two duck girls together. 

“ So he has ! ” exclaimed Bully, glancing 
around. And then, when he had looked down, he 
cried out: “Oh, a great big fish has hold of 
Bawly’s toes, and he’s going to eat him, I guess ! 
I must save my brother! ” 

Bully didn’t think anything more about the 
race after that. No, indeed, and some tomato 
ketchup, too ! Down under water he dived, and 
he swam close up to the fish who was pulling poor 


Bully and Bawly Go Swimming 


13 


Bawly away to his den in among a lot of stones. 

“ Oh, let my brother go, if you please! ” called 
Bully to the fish. 

“ No, I’ll not,” was the answer, and then the 
big fish flopped his tail like a fan and made such 
a wave that poor Bully was upset, turning a 
somersault in the water. But that didn’t scare 
him, and when he had turned over right side up 
again he swam to the fish once more and said : 

“ If you don’t let my brother go I’ll call a po- 
liceman! ” 

“No policeman can catch me!” declared the 
fish, boldly, and in a saucy manner. 

“ Oh, do something to save me! ” cried poor 
Bawly, trying to pull his toes away from the 
fish’s teeth, but he couldn’t. 

“ I’ll save you! ” shouted Bully, and then he 
took a stick, and tried to put it in the fish’s mouth 
to make him open his jaws and let loose of Bawly. 
But the stick broke, and the fish was swimming 
away faster than ever. Then Bully popped his 
head out of the water and cried to the two duck 
girls : 

“ Oh, run and tell Grandpa Croaker ! Tell him 
to come and save Bawly! ” 

Well, Alice and Lulu wibbled and wobbled as 
fast as they could go to the frog house, and told 
Grandpa Croaker, and the old gentleman gave 


14 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


one great big leap, and landed in the water right 
down close to where the fish had Bawly by the 
toes. 

“Boom! Boom! Croak-croak-croaker-croak ! ” 
cried Grandpa in his deepest bass voice. “ You 
let Bawly go! ” And, would you believe it, his 
voice sounded like a cannon, or a big gun, and 
that fish was so frightened, thinking he was going 
to be shot, that he opened his mouth and let 
Bawly go. The frog boy’s toes were scratched 
a little by the teeth of the fish, but he could still 
swim, and he and his brother and Grandpa were 
soon safe on shore. 

“ Well, I guess we won’t race any more to- 
day,” said Bawly. “ Thank you very much for 
saving me. Grandpa.” 

“ Oh, that’s all right,” said Mr. Croaker kindly. 
“ Here is a penny for each of you,” and he gave 
Bully and Bawly and Lulu and Alice each a 
penny, and they bought peppermint candy, so 
Bully and Bawly had something good to eat, even 
if they didn’t finish the race, and the bad fish had 
nothing. Now, in case I see a green rose in 
bloom on the pink lilac bush, I’ll tell you next 
about Bully making a water wheel. 


STORY II 


BULLY MAKES A WATER WHEEL 

Bully No-Tail, the frog hoy, was sitting out 
in the yard in front of his house, with his knife 
and a lot of sticks. He was whittling the sticks, 
and making almost as many chips and shavings 
as a carpenter, and as he whittled away he whis- 
tled a funny little time, about a yellow monkey- 
doodle with a pink nose colored blue, who wore 
a slipper on one foot, because he had no shoe. 

Pretty soon, along came Dickie Chip-Chip, the 
sparrow boy, and he perched on the fence in front 
of Bully, put his head on one side — not on one 
side of the fence, you know, but on one side of 
his own little feathered neck — and Dickie looked 
out of his bright little eyes at Bully, and in- 
quired : 

“ What are you making? ” 

“ I am making a water-wheel,” answered the 
frog boy. 

“ What! making a wheel out of water? ” asked 
the birdie in great surprise. “ I never heard of 
such a tiling.” 


15 


16 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“Oh, no indeed !” exclaimed Bully with a 
laugh. “ I’m making a wheel out of wood, so 
that it will go ’round and ’round in the water, 
and make a nice splashing noise. You see it’s 
something like the paddle-wheel of a steamboat, 
or a mill wheel, that I’m making.” 

“ And where are you going to get the water to 
make it go ’round? ” asked Dickie. 

“ Down by the pond,” answered Bully. “ I 
know a little place where the water falls down 
over the rocks, and I’m going to fasten a wooden 
wheel there, and it will whizz around very fast! ” 

“ Does the water hurt itself when it falls down 
over the rocks? ” asked Dickie Chip-Chip. “ Once 
I fell down over a little stone, and I hurt myself 
quite badly.” 

“ Oh, no, water can’t hurt itself,” spoke Bully, 
as he made a lot more shavings. “ There, the 
wheel is almost done. Don’t you want to see it 
go ’round, Dickie? ” 

The little sparrow boy said that he did, so 
he and the frog started off together for the pond. 
Dickie hopping along on the ground, and Bully 
flying through the air. 

What’s that? I’m wrong? Oh, yes, excuse 
me. I see where I made the mistake. Of course, 
Dickie flew through the air, and Bully hopped 
along on the ground. Now we’re all straight. 


Bully Makes a Water Wheel 


17 


Well, pretty soon they came to the pond and 
to the little place where the water fell over the 
rocks and didn’t hurt itself, and there Bully 
fastened his water-wheel, which was nearly as 
large as he was, and quite heavy. He fixed it so 
that the water would drop on the wooden pad- 
dles that stuck out like the spokes of the baby 
carriage wheels, and in a short while it was going 
around as fast as an automobile, splashing the 
drops of water up in the sunlight, and making 
them look like the diamonds which pretty ladies 
wear on their fingers. 

“ That’s a fine wheel!” cried Dickie. “I 
wonder if we could ride on it? ” 

“ I guess we could,” spoke Bully. “ It’s like 
a merry-go-round, only it’s turned up the wrong 
way. I’ll see if I can ride on it, and if it goes all 
right with me you can try it.” 

So Bully hopped on the moving water-wheel, 
and, surely enough, he had a fine ride, only, of 
course, he got all splashed up, but he didn’t care. 

“ Do you mind getting your feathers wet? ” he 
asked of Dickie as he hopped off, “ because if 
you don’t mind the wet, you can ride.” 

“ Oh, I don’t mind the wet a bit,” said the 
sparrow boy. “ In fact, I take a bath every 
morning and I wet my feathers then. So I’ll 
ride on the wheel and get wet now.” 


18 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Well, he got on, and around the wheel went, 
splashing in the water, and then Bully got on, 
and they both had a fine ride, just as if they were 
in a rainstorm with the sun shining all the while. 

But listen. Something is going to happen, I 
think. Wait a minute — yes, it’s going to happen 
right now. What’s that animal sneaking along 
through the woods, closer and closer up to where 
Bully and Dickie are playing? What is it, eh? 
A cat ! I knew it. A bad cat, too ! I could just 
feel that something was going to happen. 

You see that cat was hungry, and she hoped to 
catch the sparrow and the frog boy and eat them. 
Up she sneaked, walking as softly as a baby can 
creep, and just then Dickie and Bully got off the 
wheel, and sat down on the. hank to eat a cookie, 
which Bully found in his water-proof pocket. 

“ Now’s my chance! ” thought the cat. “ I’ll 
grab ’em both, and eat ’em!” So she made a 
spring, but she didn’t jump quite far enough 
and she missed both Bully and Dickie. Dickie 
flew up into a tree, and so he was safe, but Bully 
couldn’t fly, though he hopped away. 

After him jumped the cat, and she cried: 

“ I’ll get you yet! ” 

Bully hopped some more, but the cat raced 
toward him, and nearly had the froggie. Then 
began quite a chase. The cat was very quick. 


Bully Makes a Water Wheel 


19 


and she kept after Bully so closely that she was 
making him very tired. Pretty soon his jumps 
weren’t as long as they had been at first. And 
the cat was keeping him away from the pond, 
too, for she knew if he jumped into that he would 
get away, for cats don’t like water, or rain. 

But finally Bully managed to head himself 
back toward the pond, and the cat was still after 
him. Oh, how savage she looked with her sharp 
teeth, and her glaring eyes! Poor Bully was 
much frightened. 

All of a sudden, as he hopped nearer and 
nearer to the pond, he thought of a trick to play 
on that cat. He pretended that he could hardly 
hop any more, and only took little steps. Nearer 
and nearer sneaked the cat, lashing her tail. At 
last she thought she could give one big spring, 
and land on Bully with her sharp claws. 

She did spring, but Dickie, up in the tree, saw 
her do it, and he called to his friend Bully to look 
out. Then Bully gave a great big hop and 
landed on the water-wheel, and the cat was so 
surprised that she jumped, too, and before she 
knew it she had leaped on the wheel also. 
Around and around it went, with Bully and 
the cat on it, and water splashed all over, and the 
cat was so wet and miserable that she forgot all 


20 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


about eating Bully. But Bully only liked the 
water, and didn’t mind it a bit. 

Then the frog boy hopped off the wheel to the 
shore and hurried away, with Dickie flying over- 
head, and the cat, who was now as wet as a 
sponge, and very dizzy from the wheel going 
around so fast, managed to jump ashore a little 
while afterward. But her fur was so wet and 
plastered down that she couldn’t chase after 
Bully any more, and he got safely home; and the 
cat had to stay in the sun all day to dry out. 
But it served her right, I think. 

Now in case the little boy next door doesn’t 
take our baby carriage and make an automobile 
of it, I’ll tell you next about Bawly and Uncle 
.Wiggily. 


STORY III 


BAWLY AND UNCLE WIGGILY 

Bawly No-Tail, the frog boy, was hopping 
along through the woods one fine day, whistling a 
merry tune, and wondering if he would meet any 
of his friends, with whom he might have a game 
of ball. He had a baseball with him, and he was 
very fond of playing. I just wish you could have 
seen him stand up on his hind legs and catch balls 
in his mouth. It was as good as going to the best 
kind of a moving picture show. Perhaps some 
day you may see Bawly. 

Well, as I said, he was hopping along, tossing 
the ball up into the air and catching it, sometimes 
in his paw and sometimes in his mouth, when, all 
of a sudden he heard a funny pounding noise, 
that seemed to be in the bushes. 

“ Gracious, I wonder what that can be! ” ex- 
claimed Bawly, looking around for a good place 
to hide. 

He was just going to crawl under a hollow 
stump, for he thought perhaps the noise might be 
made by a had wolf, or a savage fox, sharpening 
21 


22 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


his teeth on a hard log, when Bawly heard some 
one say: 

“ There, I’ve dropped my hammer! Oh, dear! 
Now I’ll have to climb all the way down and get 
it, I s’pose.” 

“ Well, that doesn’t sound like a wolf or a 
fox,” thought Bawly. “ I guess it’s safe to go 
on.” 

So he didn’t hide under the stump, but hopped 
along, and in a little while he came to a place in 
the woods where there were no trees, and, bless 
you ! if there wasn’t the cutest little house you’ve 
ever seen! It wasn’t quite finished, and, in fact, 
up on the roof was Uncle Wiggily Longears, the 
old gentleman rabbit, putting on the shingles to 
keep out the rain if it came. 

“Oh, hello, Uncle Wiggily!” called Bawly, 
joyfully. 

“ Hello,” answered the rabbit carpenter. 
“ You are just in time, Bawly. Would you mind 
handing me my hammer? It slipped and fell to 
the ground.” 

“ Of course I’ll throw it up to you,” said 
Bawly, kindly. “ But you had better get behind 
the chimney, Uncle Wiggily, for I might hit you 
with the hammer, though, of course, I wouldn’t 
mean to. You see I am a very good thrower from 
having played ball so much.” 


Bawly and Uncle Wiggily 


23 


“ I see,? answered Uncle Wiggily. “ Well, 
I’ll get behind the chimney.” 

So Bawly picked up the hammer and he threw 
it carefully toward the roof, but, would you be- 
lieve me, he threw it so hard that it went right 
over the house, chimney and all, and fell down on 
the other side. 

“ My! You are too strong! ” exclaimed Uncle 
Wiggily laughing so that his fur shook. “ Try 
again, Bully, if you please.” 

“ Oh, I’m Bawly, not Bully,” said the frog 
boy. 

“ Excuse me, that was my mistake,” spoke the 
old gentleman rabbit. “I’ll get it right next 
time, Peetie — I mean Bawly.” 

Well, Bawly threw the hammer again, and this 
time it landed right on the roof close to the chim- 
ney, and Uncle Wiggily picked it up and began 
nailing on more shingles. 

“ If you please,” asked Bawly, when he had 
watched the rabbit carpenter put in about forty- 
’leven nails, “ who is this house for? ” 

“It is for Sammie and Susie Littletail,” an- 
swered Uncle Wiggily. “ They are going to 
have rabbit play-parties in it, and I hope you and 
Bully will come sometimes.” 

“ We’ll be glad to,” spoke Bawly. Then Uncle 


24 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


Wiggily drove in another nail, and the house was 
ahnost done. 

“ How do you get up and down off the roof? ” 
asked Bawly, who didn’t see any ladder. 

“ Oh, I slide up and down a rope,” answered 
Uncle Wiggily. “ I have a strong cord fastened 
to the chimney, and I crawl up it, just like a 
monkey-doodle, and when I want to come down, 
I slide down. It’s better than a ladder, and I 
can climb a rope very well, for I used to be a 
sailor on a ship. See, here is the rope.” 

Well, he took hold of it, near where it was fas- 
tened to the chimney, to show the frog boy how 
it was done, but, alas, and also alack-a-day! All 
of a sudden that rope became untied, it slipped 
out of Uncle Wiggily’s paw and fell to the 
ground! Now, what do you think about that? 

“ Oh, my! Now I have gone and done it! ” ex- 
claimed the elderly rabbit, as he leaned over the 
edge of the roof and looked down. “ Now I am 
in a pickle! — if you will kindly excuse the ex- 
pression. How am I ever going to get down? 
Oh, dear me, suz dud and a piece of sticking-plas- 
ter likewise. Oh, me ! Oh, my ! ” 

“ Can’t you jump, Uncle Wiggily? ” asked 
Bawly. 

“ Oh, my, no! I might be killed. It’s too far! 
I could never jump off the roof of a house.” 


Bawly and Uncle Wiggily 


25 


“ Perhaps you can climb down from one win- 
dow shutter to the other, and so get to the 
ground,” suggested Bawly. 

“ No,” said Uncle Wiggily, looking over the 
edge of the house again. 4 4 There are no window 
shutters on as yet. So I can’t climb on ’em.” 

Well, it did seem as if poor Uncle Wiggily 
would have to stay up there on the roof for a 
long, long time, for there was no way of getting 
down. 

44 If there was a load of hay here, you could 
jump on that, and you wouldn’t be hurt,” said 
Bawly, scratching his nose. 

44 But there is no hay here,” said the rabbit 
carpenter, sadly. 

44 Well, if there was a fireman here with a long 
ladder, then you could get down,” said Bawly, 
wiggling his toes. 

44 But there is no fireman here,” objected Uncle 
Wiggily. 44 Ah, I have it, Bawly! You are a 
good jumper, perhaps you can jump up here to 
the roof with the rope and I can fasten it to the 
chimney again and slide down as I did before.” 

44 I’ll try,” said Bawly, and he did; but bless 
you! He couldn’t jump as high as the house, no 
matter how many times he tried it. And the 
dinner bell rang and Uncle Wiggily was very 


26 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


hungry and very anxious to get off the roof and 
eat something. 

“ Oh, I know how to do it! ” cried Bawly at 
length, when he had jumped forty-sixteen times. 
“ I’ll tie a string to my baseball, and I’ll throw 
the ball up to you. Then you catch it, untie 
the string, which I’ll keep hold of on this end, and 
I’ll tie the rope to the cord. Then you can haul 
up the rope, fasten it to the chimney, and slide 
down.” 

“ Good!” cried Uncle Wiggily, clapping his 
front paws together in delight. 

Well, if you’ll believe me, Bawly did tie the 
string to his baseball and with one big throw he 
threw it right up to Uncle Wiggily, who caught 
it just as if he were on first base in a game. And 
then with the little cord, which reached down to 
the ground, he pulled up the big rope, knotted 
it around the chimney, and down he slid, just in 
time for dinner, and he took Bawly home with 
him and gave him a penny. 

Now if it should happen that I don’t lose my 
watch down the inkwell so I can see when it’s 
time for my pussy cat to have his warm soup. I’ll 
tell you in the story after this about Bully’s and 
Bawly ’s big jump. 























< 












































M 










\ 




V' 






















♦ 



f 


STORY IV 

bully’s and bawly’s big jump 

One day Mrs. No-Tail, the frog lady, looked 
in the pantry to see what there was to eat for din- 
ner and there wasn’t a single thing. No, just like 
Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, the pantry was 
bare, though there was a bone in it that was being 
saved for some time when Peetie and Jackie Bow 
Wow, the puppie-dog boys, might come on a 
visit. 

“ Oh, some one will have to go to the store to 
get something for supper,” said Mrs. No-Tail. 
“ Do you feel able to go, Grandpa Croaker? ” 

“ Well, I could go,” said the old frog gentle- 
man, in his deepest bass voice, which sounded 
like the rumble of thunder over the hills and far 
away, “ but I promised I would go over and play 
a game of checkers w T ith Uncle Wiggily Long- 
ears. Pie has just finished the playhouse for 
Sammie and Susie, and he wants to show me that. 
So I don’t see how I can go to the store very 
well.” 


27 


28 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ If Bully and Bawly were here they’d go,” 
said their mannna. “ I wish they’d come. Oh, 
here they are now,” she went on, as she looked out 
of the window and saw the two frog boys coming 
home from school. “ Hurry!” she called to 
them. “ I want you to go to the store.” 

“ All right,” they both answered, and they 
were so polite about it that Mrs. No-Tail gave 
them each a penny, though, of course, they would 
have gone without that, for they always liked 
to help their mamma. 

“ I want some sugar, and molasses, and bread, 
and butter, and some corn meal, and bacon and 
watercress salad,” said the mother frog, and 
Bully and Bawly each took a basket in which to 
carry the things. Then they hopped on toward 
the store. 

“ I’m going to buy marbles with my penny,” 
said Bully. 

“ And I’m going to buy a whistle with mine,” 
said Bawly. 

Well, they got to the grocery, all right, and 
the cow lady who kept it gave them the things 
their mamma wanted. Then they went to the 
toy store and Bully got his marbles, and Bawly 
his whistle, which made a very loud noise. 

Now I’m very sorry to be obliged to tell it, but 
something is going to happen to Bully and Bawly 


Bully’s and Bawly’s Big Jump 


29 


very soon. In fact, I think it is going to take 
place at once. Just excuse me a moment, will 
you, until I look out of the window and see if the 
alligator is coming. Yes, there he is. He just 
got off the trolley car. The conductor put him 
off because he had the wrong transfer. 

So, all at once, as Bully and Bawly were hop- 
ping along through the woods, this alligator that 
I was telling you about jumped out at them from 
under a prickly briar bush. Right at them he 
jumped, and he was a very savage alligator, for 
he had gotten loose out of the circus, where he 
belonged, and he had been tramping around 
without anything to eat for a long time, so he 
was very hungry. 

“ Now, I see where I’m going to have a hice 
dinner,” the alligator said to himself, as he 
jumped out at Bully and Bawly. 

But those two frog boys were smart little fel- 
lows, and they were always looking around for 
danger. So, as soon as the alligator made a jump 
at them, they also leaped to one side, and the un- 
pleasant creature didn’t get them. 

“Oh, you just wait! I’ll have you in a 
minute!” the alligator cried, and he opened his 
mouth so wide that it went all the way back to his 
ears, and the top of his head nearly flew off. 

“ We haven’t time to wait,” said Bully with a 


30 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


laugh, as he hopped on with his basket of gro- 
ceries. 

“ No, we must get back home in time for sup- 
per,” spoke Bawly. “So we’ll have to leave you,” 
and on he hipped and skipped and hopped with 
his basket. 

Those frog boys didn’t really think that that 
alligator could reach them, for he was so big 
and clumsy-looking that it didn’t seem as if he 
could run very fast. But he could, and the first 
thing Bully and Bawly knew, that most unpre- 
possessing creature, with a smile that went away 
around to his ears, was close behind them and 
gnashing his teeth at them. 

“ Oh, hop, Bully, hop! ” cried Bawly in great 
fright. 

“ Sure, I’ll hop ! ” answered his brother. “ You 
hop, too ! ” 

Well, they both hopped as fast as they could, 
but on account of the baskets of groceries which 
they had they couldn’t hop as fast as usual. The 
alligator saw this, and after them he crawled, and 
several times he nearly had them by their tails. 
Oh, no, excuse me, if you please, frogs don’t have 
tails. I was thinking of tadpoles. 

“ Oh, just wait until I catch you! ” cried the 
alligator, snapping his teeth together. 

But Bully and Bawly didn’t wait. On they 


Bully’s and Bawly ’s Big Jump 


31 


hopped, as fast as they could, hoping to get 
away. And would you ever believe that an alli- 
gator could be so mean as this one was? For he 
chased Bully and Bawly right up a steep hill. 
You know it’s hard to walk up hill, and harder 
still to hop, so Bully and Bawly were soon tired. 
But do you s’pose that alligator cared? Not a 
bit of it! 

Bight after them he kept crawling, faster and 
faster. 

Bully and Bawfy hopped as swiftly as they 
could, but the alligator kept getting nearer and 
nearer to them, for he was big and strong, and 
didn’t mind the hill. They could hear his savage 
jaws gnashing together, and they trembled so 
that Bully almost spilled the molasses out of his 
basket and Bawly nearly dropped the granulated 
sugar. * 

Well, finally the two frog boys were at the top 
of the hill, and they were very thankful, thinking 
that they could now get away from the alligator, 
when they suddenly saw that the hill came to an 
end, and fell over the edge of a great precipice 
just like the Niagara waterfall, only there wasn’t 
any water there, of course. 

“ Oh, we can’t go any farther,” cried Bully, 
coming to a stop. 

“ No,” said his brother, “ we can’t jump down 


32 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


that awful gully. But look, Bully, there is an- 
other hill over there,” and he pointed across the 
big, open space. “ If we could jump across from 
this hill to that hill, the alligator couldn’t get us.” 

“ Oh, but it’s a terrible big jump,” said Bully, 
and indeed it was; about as wide as a big river. 
“ But we’ve got to do it! ” cried Bully, “ for here 
comes the terrible beast ! ” 

The alligator was almost upon them. He 
opened his mouth to grab them with his teeth, 
when Bully, spreading out his legs, and taking 
a firm hold of his grocery basket, gave a great, big 
jump. Through the air he sailed, over the deep 
valley, and he landed safely on the other hill. 
Then Bawly did the same, and with one most 
tremendous, extemporaneous and extraordinary 
jump, he landed close beside his brother, and the 
alligator couldn’t get either of them because he 
couldn’t jump across the chasm. 

Oh, but he was an angry alligator though ! He 
gnashed his teeth and wiggled his tail and even 
cried big round tears. Nearly all alligators cry 
little square tears, but even round ones didn’t do 
a bit of good. Then Bully threw a marble at the 
savage creature, and hit him on the nose, and 
Bawly blew his whistle so loud, that the alligator 
thought a policeman, or postman, was coming, 
and he turned around and ran away, and the frog 


Bully’s and Bawly’s Big J ump 


33 


boys went on safely home with their baskets of 
groceries and had a good supper. 

Now in case that alligator doesn’t chase after 
me, and chew up my typewriter to make mince- 
meat of it for the wax doll, I’ll tell you in the 
next story about Grandpa Croaker digging a 
well. 


STORY Y 


GRANDPA CROAKER DIGS A WELL 

It happened, once upon a time when Mrs. No- 
Tail, the frog lady, went to the pump to get some 
water for supper, that a little fish jumped out of 
the pump spout and nearly bit her on the nose. 

“ Ha! That is very odd/’ she said. “ There 
must be fish in our well, and in that case I think 
we had better have a new one.” 

So that night, when Mr. No- Tail came home 
from the wallpaper factory, where he stepped into 
ink and then hopped all over white paper to make 
funny patterns on it — that night, I say, Mrs. No- 
Tail said to her husband: 

“ I think we will have to get a new well.” 
Then she told him about the fish from the pump 
nearly biting her, and Mr. No-Tail remarked: 

“Yes, I think we had better have a new place 
to get our water, for the fish in the old well may 
drink it ail up.” 

“ Well, well! ” exclaimed Grandpa Croaker in 
such a deep bass voice that he made the dishpan 
34 


Grandpa Crocker Digs a Well 35 


on the gas stove rattle as loudly as if Bully or 
Bawly were drumming on it with a wishbone from 
the Thanksgiving turkey. “ Let me dig the 
well,” went on the old gentleman frog. “ I just 
love to shovel the dirt, and I can dig a well so 
deep that no fish will ever get into it.” 

“ Very well,” said Mr. No-Tail. “ You may 
start in the morning, and Bully and Bawly can 
help you, as it will be Saturday and there is no 
school.” 

Well, the next morning Grandpa Croaker 
started in. He marked a nice round circle on the 
ground in the back yard, because he wanted a 
round well, and not a square one, you see; and 
then he began to dig. At first there was nothing 
for Bully and Bawly to do, as when he was near 
the top of the well their Grandpa could easily 
throw the dirt out himself. But when he had dug 
down quite a distance it was harder work, to toss 
up the dirt, so Grandpa Croaker told the boys to 
get a rope, and a hook and some pails. 

The hook was fastened to one end of the rope, 
and then a pail was put on the hook. Then the 
pail was lowered into the well, down to where 
Grandpa Croaker was working. He filled the 
pail with dirt, and Bully and Bawly hauled it up 
and emptied it. 

“ Oh, this is lots of fun! ” exclaimed Bully, as 


36 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


he and his brother pulled on the rope. “ It’s as 
much fun as playing baseball.” 

“ I think so, too,” agreed Bawly. Then Sam- 
mie Littletail, the rabbit boy, came along, and so 
did Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy 
dogs. They wanted to help pull up the dirt, so 
Bully and Bawly let them after Sammie had 
given the frog brothers a nice marble, and Peetie 
and Jackie each a stick of chewing gum. 

Grandpa Croaker kept on digging the well, 
and the frog boys and their friends pulled up the 
dirt, and pretty soon the hole in the ground, was 
so deep and dark that, by looking up straight, 
from down at the bottom of it, the old gentleman 
frog could see the stars, and part of the moon, in 
the sky, even if it was daylight. 

Then he dug some more, and, ail of a sudden, 
his shovel went down into some water, and then 
Grandpa Croaker knew that the well was almost 
finished. He dug out a little more earth, in came 
more water, wetting his feet, and then the frog 
well-digger cried: 

“ I’ve struck water! I’ve struck water! ” 

“ Hurrah! ” shouted Bawly. 

“ Hurray ! Hurray!” exclaimed Bully, and 
they were so happy that they lanced up and 
down. Then Sammie Little-Tail and Peetie and 
Jackie Bow Wow grew so excited and delighted 


Grandpa Croaker Digs a Well 


37 


that they ran off to tell all their friends about 
Grandpa Croaker digging a well. That left 
Bully and Bawly all alone up at the edge of the 
big hole in the ground, at the bottom of which 
was their grandpa. 

“ Let’s have another little dance! ” suggested 
Bully. 

“No,” replied Bawly, “ let’s jump down the 
well and have a drink of the new water that hasn’t 
any fishes in it.” 

So, without thinking what they were doing, 
down they leaped into the well, almost falling on 
Grandpa Croaker’s bald head, and carrying down 
with them the rope, by which they had been pull- 
ing up the pails of dirt. Into the water they 
popped, and each one took a big drink. 

‘'Well, now you’ve done it!” cried Grandpa 
Croaker, as he leaned on his shovel and looked at 
his two grandsons. 

“Why, what is the matter?” asked Bully, 
splashing some water on Bawly ’s nose. 

“ Yes. All we did was to jump down Here,” 
added Bawly. “ What’s wrong? ” 

“ Why that leaves no one above on the ground 
to help me get up,” said the old gentleman frog. 
“ I was depending on you to haul me up by the 
rope, and here you jump down, and pull the rope 
with you. It’s as bad as when Uncle Wiggily 


38 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


was on the roof, only he was up and couldn’t get 
down, and we’re down and can’t get up.” 

“ Oh T I think I can jump to the top of the well 
and take the rope with me. If I can’t take this 
rope I’ll get another and pull you both up,” said 
Bully. So he hopped and he hopped, but he 
couldn’t hop to the top of the well. Every time 
he tried it, he fell back into the water, ker-slash ! 

“ Let me try,” said his brother. But it was 
just the same with Bawly. Back he sploshed- 
splashed into the well-water, getting all wet. 

“ Now we’ll never get out of here,” said 
Grandpa Croaker sadly. “ I wish you boys would 
think a little more, and not do things so quickly.” 

“ We will — next time,” promised Bawly as he 
gave another big jump, but he came nowhere 
near the top of the well. 

Then it began to look as if they would have to 
stay down there forever, for no one came to pull 
them out. 

“ Let’s call for help,” suggested Bully. So he 
and Bawly called as loud as they could, and so did 
Grandpa Croaker. But the well was so deep, and 
their voices sounded so loud and rumbling, com- 
ing out of the hole in the ground, that every one 
thought it was thunder. And the animal people 
feared it would rain, so they all ran home, and no 


Grandpa Croaker Digs a Well 


39 


one thought of grandpa and the two frog boys 
in the deep well. 

But at last along came Alice Wibblewobble, 
and, being a duck, she didn’t mind a thunder 
storm. So she didn’t run away, and she heard 
Grandpa Croaker and Bully and Bawly calling 
for help at the bottom of the well. She asked 
what was the trouble, and Bully told her what 
had happened. 

“ Oh, you silly boys, to jump down a well! ” 
exclaimed Alice. “ But never fear. I’ll help you 
up.” So they never feared, and Alice got a rope 
and lowered it down to them, and then, with the 
help of her brother Jimmie and her sister Lulu, 
she pulled all three frogs up from the well, and 
they lived happy for ever after, and drank the 
water that had no fishes in it. 

Now if the faucet in the kitchen sink doesn’t 
turn upside down, and squirt the water on the 
ceiling and into the cat’s eye, I’ll tell you next 
about Papa No-Tail in trouble. 


STORY VI 


PAPA NO-TAIL IN TROUBLE 

Papa No- Tail, the frog gentleman, was work- 
ing away in the wallpaper factory one day, when 
something quite strange happened to him, and 
if you all sit right nice and quiet, as my dear old 
grandmother used to say. I’ll tell you all about it, 
from the beginning to the end, and I’ll even tell 
you the middle part, which some people leave 
out, when they tell stories. 

Papa No-Tail would dip his four feet, which 
were something like hands, in the different 
colored inks at the factory. There was red ink, 
and blue ink, and white ink, and black ink, and 
sky-purple-green ink, and also that newest shade, 
skilligimink color, which S a ramie Littletail once 
dyed his Easter eggs. After he had his feet 
nicely covered with the ink. Papa No-Tail 
would hop all over pieces of white paper to make 
funny patterns on them. Then they would be 
ready to paper a room, and make it look pretty. 

“ I think that is very well done,” said the old 
40 


Papa No-Tail In Trouble 


41 


gentleman frog to himself as he looked at one 
roll of paper on which he had made a picture of 
a mouse chasing a big lion. “ Now I think I 
will make a pattern of a doggie standing on his 
left ear.” And he did so, and very fine it was, too. 

“ Now, while I’m waiting for the ink to dry,” 
said Mr. No- Tail, “I’ll lie down and take a 
nap.” So he went fast, fast asleep on a long piece 
of the wall paper that was stretched out on the 
floor, and this was the beginning of his trouble. 

For, all at once, a puff of wind — not a cream 
puff, you understand, but a wind puff — came in 
the window, and rolled up the wallpaper in a tight 
little roll, and the worst of it was that Papa 
No- Tail was asleep inside. Yes, fast, fast asleep, 
and he never knew that he was wrapped up, just 
like a stick of chewing gum; only you mustn’t 
ever chew gum in school, you know. 

Well, time went on, and the clock ticked, and 
Papa No-Tail still slept. Then a man looked in 
the window of the wallpaper factory and, seeing 
no one there, he thought he would take a roll of 
paper home with him, to paste on his little boy’s 
bedroom. 

“ The next time I come past here, perhaps 
some one will be in the office,” the man said. 
“ and then I can pay them for the paper,” for he 
wanted to be very honest, you see. “I’ll get 


42 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Uncle Butter, the goat, to paste the paper on the 
wall for me,” said the man. Then he reached 
inside the room, and what do you think? Why 
he picked up the very piece of wallpaper that was 
wrapped around Papa Chip-Chip — Oh, no, ex- 
cuse me! I mean Papa No- Tail. Yes, the man 
picked up that roll, with Bully’s and Bawly’s 
papa inside, and away he went with it, and the 
old gentleman frog was still sound asleep. 

Now this is about the middle of his trouble, 
just as I said I’d tell you, but we haven’t gotten 
to the end yet, though we will in a little while. 

Home that man went, as fast as he could 
go, and on his way he stopped at Uncle Butter’s 
office. 

“ I have a little wallpapering I want done at 
my house,” the man said to the old gentleman 
goat, “ and I wish you’d come right along with 
me and do it. I have the paper here.” 

“ To be sure I will,” said Uncle Butter. So 
he got his pail of paste, and gave Billie and 
Nannie Goat a little bit on some brown paper, 
just like jam, and they liked it very much. The 
goat paper-hanger took his shears, and his 
brushes, and his stepladders, tying them on his 
horns, and away he went with the man. 

Pretty soon they came to the house where the 
man lived, and his little boy was there, and very 


Paj)a No-Tail In Trouble 


43 


delighted he was when he heard that he was to 
have some new paper on his room. 

‘‘May I watch you put it on?” he asked 
Uncle Butter. 

“ Yes,” answered the old gentleman goat, “ if 
you don’t step in the paste, and spoil the carpet.” 

The little boy promised that he wouldn’t, and 
Uncle Butter went to work. First he got his 
sticky stuff all ready, and then he made a little 
table on which to lay out and paste the paper. 

“ Now, we’ll cut the roll into strips and fasten 
it on the wall good and tight, so that it won’t 
fall off in the middle of the night and scare you,” 
said Uncle Butter. Then he reached for the 
roll of paper, and, mind you. Papa No-Tail was 
still asleep inside of it. But all at once, just as 
the paper-hanger goat was about to pick up the 
roll, Mr. No-Tail awakened and was quite sur- 
prised to discover where he was. 

“ My, I never would have believed it,” he said, 
and he wiggled his legs and arms and made a 
great rustling sound inside the roll of paper 
like a fly in a sugar bag. 

“Hello! What’s that?” cried Uncle Butter, 
jumping back so quickly that he upset his paste- 
pot. 

“ What’s the matter? ” asked the little boy in 
glad surprise. 


“ Why, there’s something inside that paper ! 99 
cried the goat. See, it’s moving! There must be 
a fairy inside! ” 

Surely enough, the paper was rolling and 
twisting around on the floor in a most remarkable 
manner, for Papa No-Tail inside was wriggling 
and twisting, and trying his best to get out. But 
the paper was wound around him too tightly, and 
he couldn’t get loose. 

“ Oh, do you think it’s a fairy? ” asked the 
little boy eagerly, for he loved the dear creatures, 
and wanted to see one. 

“ Let me out! Oh, please let me out! ” sud- 
denly cried Papa No-Tail just then. 

“ Of course it’s a fairy, my boy! ” exclaimed 
Uncle Butter. “ Didn’t you hear it call? Oh, 
I’m going right away from here! I’ve pasted all 
kinds of paper, but never before have I handled 
fairy paper, and I’m afraid to begin now.” 

He started to run out of the room but his foot 
slipped in the paste, and down he fell, and his 
little table fell on top of him, and the stepladder 
was twisted in his horns. And Papa No-Tail 
was trying harder than ever to get loose, and 
the roll of wallpaper rolled right toward Uncle 
Butter. 

“ Don’t catch me! Please, don’t catch me! ” 


Papa No-Tail In Trouble 


45 


the goat called to the fairy he supposed was in- 
side. 4 4 1 never did anything to you ! ” 

Faster and faster rolled the paper, for Mr. 
No-Tail was wiggling quite hard now, and he 
was crying to be let out. Then, all of a sudden, 
the paper with the frog in, rolled close to the 
little boy. The boy was brave, and he loved 
fairies, so he opened the roll, and out hopped 
Mr. No- Tail, being very glad indeed to get 
loose, for it was quite warm inside there. 

“ Oh my! Was that you in the paper? ” asked 
Uncle Butter, solemnly, sitting in the middle of 
the floor, on a lot of paste. 

44 It was,” said Papa No-Tail, as he helped 
the goat to get up. 

44 Well, I never heard tell of such a thing in 
all my life! Never! ” exclaimed the goat, when 
the frog gentleman told him all about it. Then 
Uncle Butter pasted the paper on the wall, and 
Papa No-Tail hopped home, and that’s the end of 
the story, just as I promised it would be. 

Now in case the pussy cat doesn’t wash the 
puppy dog’s face with the cork from the ink 
bottle and make his nose black, I’ll tell you on 
the next page about Bully playing marbles. 


STORY VII 


BULLY NO-TAIL PLAYS MAEBLES 

It happened one day that, as Bully No-Tail, 
the frog boy, was walking along with his bag 
of marbles going clank- clank in his pocket, he 
met Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels. 

“Hello, Bully !” called the two brothers. 
“ Do you want to have a game of marbles? ” 

“ Of course I do,” answered Bully. “ I just 
bought some new ones. ‘ First shot agates ! 9 99 

“ First shot! ” yelled Billie, right after Bully. 

“First shot!” also cried Johnnie, almost at 
the same time. 

“ Well, I guess we’re about even,” spoke Bully, 
as he opened his marble bag to look inside. 
“ Now, how are we going to tell who will shoot 
first? ” 

“ I’ll tell you,” proposed Billie. “ We’ll each 
throw a marble up into the air, and the one whose 
comes down first will shoot first.” 

Well, the other two animal boys thought that 
was fair, so they tossed their marble shooters up 
into the air. Billie only sent his up a little way, 
46 


Bully No-Tail Plays Marbles 


47 


for then he knew it would come down first, but 
J ohnnie and Bully didn’t think of this, and they 
threw their shooters up as high as they could. 
And, of course, their marbles were so much 
longer coming down to the ground again. 

“ Oh, ho! Here’s mine! ” cried Billie. “ I’m 
to shoot first.” 

“Andjiere’s mine,” added Johnnie, a little 
later, as his marble came down. 

“Yes, but where’s mine?” asked Bully, and 
they all listened carefully to tell when Bully’s 
shooter would fall down. But the funny part of 
it was that it didn’t come. 

7 Say, did you throw it up to the sky? ” asked 
Billie surprised like. 

“ Because, if you did, it won’t come down until 
Fourth of July,” added Johnnie. 

“ No, I didn’t throw it as high as that,” replied 
the frog boy. “ But perhaps Dickie .Chip-Chip, 
the sparrow boy, is flying around up there, and 
he may have taken it in his bill for a joke.” 

So they looked up toward the clouds as far as 
they could, but no little sparrow boy did they see. 

“ Well, we’ll have a game of marbles, any- 
how,” said Bully at length. “ I have another 
shooter.” 

So he and Billie and Johnnie made a ring in 
the dirt, and put some marbles in the centre. 


48 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Then they began to play, and Billie shot first, 
then Johnnie, and last of all Bully. And all the 
while the frog boy was wondering what had hap- 
pened to his first marble. Now, a very queer 
thing had hajDpened to it, and you’ll soon hear all 
about it. 

Billie and Johnnie had each missed hitting any 
marbles, and when it came Bully’s turn he took 
careful aim, with his second-best shooter, a red 
and blue one. 

“Whack-bang!” That’s the way Bully’s 
shooter hit the marbles in the ring, scattering 
them all over, and rolling several outside. 

“Say, are you going to knock ’em all out? ” 
asked Billie. 

“ That’s right ! Leave some for us,” begged 
Johnnie. 

“ Wait until I have one more trial,” went on 
Bully, for you see he had two shots on account 
of being lucky with his first one and knocking 
some marbles from the ring. 

Then he went to look for his second-best 
shooter, for it had rolled away, but he couldn’t 
find it. It had completely, teetotally, mysteri- 
ously and extraordinarily disappeared. 

“ I’m sure it rolled over here,” said Bully as 
he poked around in the grass near a big bush. 
“ Please help me look for it, fellows.” 


Bully No-Tail Plays Marbles 


49 


So Billie and Johnnie helped Bully look, but 
they couldn’t find the second shooter that the 
frog boy had lost. 

“ You two go on playing and I’ll hunt for the 
marble,” said Bully after a while, so he searched 
along in the grass, and, as he did so, he dropped a 
nice glass agate out of his bag. He stooped to 
pick it up, but before he could get his toes on it 
something that looked like a big chicken’s bill 
darted out of the prickly briar bush and gobbled 
up the marble. 

“ Oh! ” cried Bully in fright, jumping back, 
“ I wonder if that was a snake? ” 

“ No, I’m not a snake,” was the answer. “ I’m 
a bird,” and then out from behind the bush came 
a great, big Pelican bird. 

“Did — did you take my marble?” asked 
Bully timidly. 

“ I did! ” cried the Pelican bird, snapping his 
bill together just like a big pair of scissors. “ I 
ate the first one after it fell to the ground near 
me, and I ate the second one that you shot over 
here. They’re good — marbles are! I like ’em. 
Give me some more ! ” 

The bird snapped his beak again, and Bully 
jumped back. As he did so the marbles in his 
pocket rattled, and the Pelican heard them. 

“Ha! You have more!” he cried: “Hand 


50 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


’em over. “ I’ll eat ’em all up. I just love 
marbles!” 

44 No, you can’t have mine! ” exclaimed Bully, 
backing away. “ I want to play some more games 
with Billie and Johnnie with these,” and he 
looked to see where his two friends were. They 
were quite some distance off, shooting marbles 
as hard as they could. 

Then, all of a sudden, that Pelican bird made 
a swoop for poor Bully, and before the frog boy 
could get out of the way the bird had gobbled him 
up in his big bill. There Bully was, not exactly 
swallowed by the bird, you understand, but held 
a prisoner in the big pouch, or skin laundry-bag 
that hung down below the bird’s lower beak. 

“ Oh, let me out of here! ” cried Bully, hop- 
ping about inside the big bag on the bird’s big 
bill. 4 4 Let me out ! Let me out ! ” 

44 No, I’ll not,” said the big bird, speaking 
through his nose because his mouth was shut. 
44 I’ll keep you there until you give me all your 
marbles, or until I decide whether or not I’ll eat 
you for my supper.” 

Well, poor Bully was very much frightened, 
and I guess you’d be, too. He tried to get out 
but he couldn’t, and the bird began walking off 
to his nest, taking the frog boy with him. Then 
Bully though of his bag of marbles, and, inside 


Bully No-Tail Plays Marbles 


51 


the big bill, he rattled them as loudly as he could. 

“ Billie and Johnnie Bushytail may hear me, 
and help me,” he thought. 

And, surely enough the squirrel boys did. 
They heard the rattle of Bully’s marbles inside 
the Pelican’s beak, and they saw the big bird, and 
they guessed at once where Bully was. Then 
they ran up to the Pelican, and began hitting him 
with their marbles, which they threw at him as 
hard as they could. In the eyes and on his ears 
and on his wiggily toes and on his big beak they 
hit him with marbles, until that Pelican bird was 
glad enough to open his bill and let Bully go, 
marbles and all. Then the bird flew away to its 
nest, and Bully and his friends could play their 
game once more. 

The Pelican didn’t come back to bother them, 
but he had Bully’s two shooters, that he had 
swallowed. So Johnnie, the squirrel, lent the boy 
frog another shooter, and it was all right. And, 
in case the rain doesn’t come down the chimney 
and put the fire out, so I can’t cook some pink 
eggs with chocolate on for my birthday, I’ll tell 
you in the following story about Bawly and the 
soldier hat. 


STORY VIII 


BAWLY AND THE SOLDIER HAT 

Susie Littletail and Jennie Chipmunk were 
having a play party in the woods. They had 
their lunch in little birch-bark baskets, and they 
used a nice, big, flat stump for a table. They 
took an old napkin for a tablecloth, and they had 
pieces of carrots boiled in molasses and chocolate, 
and cabbage with pink frosting on, and nuts all 
covered with candy, and some sugared popcorn, 
and all nice things like that, to eat. 

“ Oh, isn’t this lovely!” exclaimed Susie. 
“ Please pass me the fried lolly-pops, Jennie, 
aren’t they lovely? ” 

“ Yes, they’re perfectly grand! ” spoke Jennie 
as she passed over some bits of turnip, which they 
made believe were fried lolly-pops. “ I’ll have 
some sour ginger snaps, Susie.” 

So Susie passed the plate full of acorns, which 
were make-believe sour ginger snaps, you know, 
and the little animal girls were having a very 
fine time, indeed. Oh, my, yes, and a bottle of 
horse-radish also ! 


52 


Bawly and the Soldier Hat 


53 


Now, don’t worry, if you please. 1 know I 
did promise to tell about Bawly and the soldier 
hat, and I’m going to do it. But Susie’s and 
Jennie’s play party has something to do with 
the hat, so I had to start off with them. 

While they were playing in the woods, having 
a fine time, Bawly No-Tail, the frog boy, was at 
home in his house, making a big soldier hat out 
of paper. I suppose you children have often 
made them, and also have played at having a 
parade with wooden swords and guns. If you 
haven’t done so, please get your papa to make 
you a soldier hat. 

Well, finally Bawly ’s hat was finished, and he 
put a feather in it, just as Yankee Doodle did, 
only Bawly didn’t look like macaroni. 

“ Now, I’ll go out and see if I can find the boys 
and we’ll pretend there’s a war, and a battle, and 
shooting and all that,” went on the frog chap, 
who loved to do exciting things. So Bawly 
hopped out, and Grandpa Croaker, who was 
asleep in the rocking chair didn’t hear him go. 
Anyhow, I don’t believe the old gentleman frog 
would have cared, for Bawly’s papa was at work 
in the wallpaper factory and his mamma had 
gone to the five and ten cent store to buy a new 
dishpan that didn’t have a hole in it. As for the 
other frog boy, Bawly’s brother Bully, he had 


54 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


gone after an ice cream cone, I think, or maybe a, 
chocolate candy. 

On Bawly hopped, but he didn’t meet any of 
his friends. He had on his big, paper soldier hat, 
with the feather sticking out of the top, and 
Bawly also had a wooden gun, painted black, to 
make it look real, and he had a sword made out 
of a stick, all silvered over with paint to make it 
look like steel. 

Oh, Bawly was a very fine soldier boy! And as 
he marched along he whistled a little tune that 
went like this : 

44 Soldier boy, soldier boy. 

Brave and true, 

I’m sure every one is 
Frightened at you. 

Salute the flag and 
Fire the gun, 

Now wave your sword and 
Foes will run. 

Your feathered cap gives 
Lots of joy, 

Oh ! you’re a darling 
Soldier boy! ” 


Well, Bawly felt finer than ever after that, 
and though he still didn’t meet any of his friends. 


Bawly and the Soldier Hat 


55 


with whom he might play, he was hoping he 
might see a savage fox or wolf, that he might do 
battle with the unpleasant creature. But per- 
haps you had better wait and see what happens. 

All this while, as Bawly was marching along 
through the woods with his soldier cap on, Susie 
and Jennie were playing party at the old stump. 
They had just eaten the last of the sweet-sour 
cookies, and drank the last thimbleful of the 
orange-lemonade when, all at once, what should 
happen but that a great big alligator crawled out 
of the bushes and made a jump for them! Dear 
me! Would you ever expect such a thing? 

“Oh, look at that!” cried Susie as she saw 
the alligator. 

“Yes. Let’s run home!” shouted Jennie in 
fright. 

But before either of them could stir a step the 
savage alligator, who had escaped from the 
circus again, grabbed them, one in each claw, and 
then, holding them so that they couldn’t get 
away, he sat up on the end of his big tail, and 
looked first at Susie and then at J ennie. 

“ Oh, please let us go ! ” cried Susie, with tears 
in her eyes. 

“ Oh, yes, do ; and I’ll give you this half of a 
cookie I have left,” spoke Jennie kindly. 

“ I don’t want your cookie, I want you,” sang 


56 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


the alligator, as if he were reciting a song. “ I’m 
going to eat you both! ” 

Then he held them still tighter in his claws, 
and fairly glared at them from out of his big 
eyes. 

“ I’m going to eat you all up! ” he growled, 
“ but the trouble is I don’t know which one to 
eat first. I guess I’ll eat you,” and he made a 
motion toward Susie. She screamed, and then 
the alligator changed his mind. “No, I guess 
I’ll eat you,” and he opened his mouth for 
Jennie. Then he changed his mind again, and he 
didn’t know what to do. But, of course, this 
made Jennie and Susie feel very nervous and 
also a big word called apprehensive, which is the 
same thing. 

“Oh, help! Help! Will no one help us ? ” 
cried Susie at last. 

“No, I guess no one will,” spoke the alligator, 
real mean and saucy like. 

But he was mistaken. At that moment, 
hopping through the woods was Bawly No-Tail, 
wearing his paper soldier hat. He heard Susie 
call, and up he marched, like the brave soldier 
frog boy that he was. Through the holes in the 
bushes he could see the big alligator, and he saw 
Susie and Jennie held fast in his claws. 

“ Oh, I can never fight that savage creature 


Bawly and the Soldier Hat 


57 


all alone,” thought Bawly. “ I must make him 
believe that a whole army of soldiers is coming 
at him.” 

So Bawly hid behind a tree, where the alligator 
couldn’t find him, and the frog boy beat on 
a hollow log with a stick as if it were a 
drum. Then he blew out his cheeks, whistling, 
and made a noise like a fife. Then he aimed his 
wooden gun and cried: “Bang! Bang! Bung! 
Bung! ” just as if the wooden gun had powder 
in it. Next Bawly waved his cap with the 
feather in it, and the alligator heard all this, and 
he saw the waving soldier cap, and he, surely 
enough, thought a whole big army was coming 
after him. 

“ I forgot something,” the alligator suddenly 
cried, as he let go of Susie and Jennie. “ I have 
to go to the dentist’s to get a tooth filled,” and 
away that alligator scrambled through the 
woods as fast as he could go, taking his tail with 
him. So that’s how Bawly saved Susie and Jen- 
nie, and very thankful they were to him, and 
if they had had any cookies left they would have 
given him two or sixteen, I guess. 

Now if our gas stove doesn’t go out and 
dance in the middle of the back yard and scare 
the cpok, so she can’t bake a rice-pudding pie- 
cake, I’ll tell you next about Grandpa Croaker 
and the umbrella. 


STORY IX 

GRANDPA CROAKER AND THE UMBRELLA 

One day, as Bully Xo-Tail, the frog boy, was 
coming home from school he thought of a very 
hard word he had had to spell in class that after- 
noon. It began with a “ C,” and the next letter 
was 44 A ” and the next one was “ T ” — CAT — 
and what do you think? Why Bully said it 
spelled 4 4 Kitten,” and just for that he had to 
write the word on his slate forty- ’leven times, so 
he’d remember it next day. 

44 1 guess I won’t forget it again in a hurry,” 
thought Bully as he hopped along with his 
books in a strap over his shoulder. 44 C-a-t 
spells — ” And just then he heard a funny noise in 
the bushes, and he stopped short, as Grandfather 
Goosey Gander’s clock did, when Jimmy Wib- 
blewobble poured molasses in it. Bully looked 
all around to see what the noise was. 44 For it 
might be that alligator, or the Pelican bird,” he 
whispered to himself. 

Just then he heard a jolly laugh, and his 
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Grandpa Croaker and the Umbrella 59 


brother Bawly hopped out from under a cabbage 
leaf. 

“Did I scare you, Bully?” asked Bawly, as 
he scratched his right ear with his left foot. 

“ A little,” said Bully, turning a somersault 
to get over being frightened. 

“ Well, I didn’t mean to, and I won’t do it 
again. But now that you are out of school, 
come on, let’s go have a game of ball. It’ll be 
lots of fun,” went on Bawly. 

So the two brothers hopped off, and found 
Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels, and 
Sammie Littletaii, the rabbit boy, and some other 
animal friends, and they had a fine game, and 
Bawly made a home run. 

Now, about this same time, Grandpa Croaker, 
the nice old gentleman frog, was hopping along 
through the cool, shady woods, and he was won- 
dering what Mrs. No-Tail would have good for 
supper. 

“ I hope she has scrambled watercress with 
sugar on top,” thought Grandpa, and just then 
he felt a drop of rain on his back. The sun had 
suddenly gone under a cloud, and the water was 
coming down as fast as it could, for April show- 
ers bring May flowers, you know. Grandpa 
Croaker looked up, and, as he did so a drop of 
rain fell right in his eye! But bless you! He 


60 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


didn’t mind that a bit. He just hopped out 
where he could get all wet, for he had on his 
rubber clothes, and he felt as happy as your 
dollie does when she has on her new dress and 
goes for a ride in the park. Frogs love water. 

The rain came down harder and harder and 
the water was running about, all over in the 
woods, playing tag, and jumping rope, and 
everything like that, when, all at once, Grandpa 
Croaker heard a little voice crying: 

“ Oh, dear ! I’ll never get home in all this 
rain without wetting my new dress and bonnet! 
Oh, what shall I do? ” 

“ Ha, I wonder if that can be a fairy? ” said 
Grandpa. 

“ No, I’m not a fairy,” went on the voice. 
“ I’m Nellie Chip-Chip, the sparrow girl, and 
I haven’t any umbrella.” 

“ Oh, ho! ” exclaimed Grandpa Croaker as he 
saw Nellie huddled up under a big leaf, “ why do 
you come out without an umbrella when it may 
rain at any moment? Why do you do it? ” 

“ Oh, I came out to-day to gather some nice 
wild flowers for my teacher,” said Nellie. “ See, 
I found some lovely white ones, like stars,” and 
she held them out so Grandpa could smell them. 
But he couldn’t without hopping over closer to 
where the little sparrow girl was. 


Grandpa Croaker and the Umbrella 61 


“ I was so interested in the flowers that I for- 
got all about bringing an umbrella/’ went on 
Nellie, and then she began to cry, for she had 
on a new blue hat and dress, and didn’t want 
them to get spoiled by the rain that was splash- 
ing all over. 

“ Oh, don’t cry!” begged Grandpa. 

“ But I can’t get home without an umbrella,” 
wailed Nellie. 

“ Oh, I can soon fix that,” said the old gentle- 
man goat — I mean frog. “ See, over there is a 
nice big toadstool. That will make the finest 
umbrella in the world. I’ll break it off and bring 
it to you, and then you can fly home, holding it 
over your head, in your wing, and then your hat 
and dress won’t get wet.” 

Nellie thanked Grandpa Croaker very kindly 
and thought what a fine frog gentleman he was. 
Off he hopped through the rain, never minding it 
the least bit, and just as he got to the toadstool 
what do you s’pose he saw? Why, a big, ugly 
snake was twined around it, just as a grape- 
vine twines around the clothes-post. 

“ Hello, there! ” cried Grandpa. “ You don’t 
need that toadstool at all, Mr. Snake, for water 
won’t hurt you. I want it for Nellie .Chip-Chip, 
so kindly unwind yourself from it.” 


62 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Indeed, I will not/’ spoke the snake, saucily, 
hissing like a steam radiator on a hot day. 

46 1 demand that you immediately get off that 
toadstool!” cried Grandpa Croaker in his 
hoarsest voice, so that it sounded like distant 
thunder. He wanted to scare the snake. 

“ I certainly will not get off! ” said the snake, 
firmly, “ and what’s more I’m going to catch 
you, too ! ” And with that he reached out like 
lightning and grabbed Grandpa, and wound 
himself around him and the toadstool also, and 
there the poor gentleman frog was, tight fast! 

“Oh! Oh! You’re squeezing the life out 
out of me! ” cried Grandpa Croaker. 

“ That’s what I intend to do,” spoke the snake, 
savagely. 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What shall I do? ” 
asked Nellie. “ Shall I bite his tail, Mr. Frog? ” 

“No, stay there. Don’t come near him, or 
he’ll grab you,” called Grandpa Croaker in a 
choking voice. “ Besides you’ll get all wet, for 
it’s still raining. I’ll get away somehow.” But 
no matter how hard he struggled Grandpa 
couldn’t get away from the snake, who was press- 
ing him tighter and tighter against the toadstool. 

Poor Grandpa thought he was surely going to 
be killed, and Nellie was crying, but she didn’t 
dare go near the snake, and the snake was laugh- 


Grandpa Croaker and the Umbrella 63 


ing and snickering as loud as he could. Oh, he 
was very impolite ! Then, all of a sudden, along 
hopped Bully and Bawly, the frog boys. The 
ball game had been stopped on account of the 
rain, you know. 

“Oh, look!” cried Bully. “We must save 
Grandpa from that snake ! ” 

“That’s what we must!” shouted Bawly. 
“ Here, we’ll make him unwind himself from 
Grandpa and the toadstool and then hit him with 
our baseball bats.” 

So those brave frog boys went quite close to 
the snake, and that wiggily creature thought he 
could catch them, and so put out his head to do 
it. Then Bully and Bawly hopped around the 
toadstool in a circle, and the snake, keeping his 
beady, black eyes on them, followed them with 
his head, around and around, still hoping to 
catch them, until he finally unwound himself, just 
like a corkscrew out of a bottle. 

Then Bully and Bawly hit him with their base- 
ball bats, and the snake ran away, taking his tail 
with him, and Grandpa Croaker was free. Then, 
taking a long breath, for good measure, the old 
gentleman frog broke off the toadstool and gave 
it to Nellie Chip-Chip for an umbrella, and the 
sparrow girl could go home in the rain without 
getting wet. And Grandpa thanked Bully and 


64 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Bawly and hopped on home with them. So that’s 
the end of this story. 

But in case the little dog next door doesn’t 
take our doormat and eat it for supper with his 
bread and butter I’ll tell you in the story after 
this one about Bawly and Jollie Longtail. 


STORY X 


BAWLY NO-TAIL AND JOLLIE LONGTAIL 

For a few days after Grandpa Croaker, the 
old frog gentleman, had been wound around the 
toadstool by the snake, as I told you in the story 
before this one, he was so sore and stiff from the 
squeezing he had received, that he had to sit in 
an easy chair, and eat hot mush with sugar on. 
And, in order that he would not be lonesome, 
Bawly and Bully No-Tail, the frog boys, sat 
near him, and read him funny things from their 
school books, or the paper, and Grandpa 
Croaker was very thankful to them. 

The frog boys wanted very much to go away 
and play ball with their friends, for, it being the 
Easter vacation, there was no school, but, in- 
stead, they remained at home nearly all the while, 
so Grandpa wouldn’t feel lonesome. 

But at last one day the old gentleman frog 
said: 

“ Now, boys, I’m sure you must be very tired 
of staying with me so much. You need a little 
65 


66 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


vacation. I am almost well now, so I’ll hop over 
and see Uncle Wiggily Longears. Then you 
may go and play ball, and here is a penny for 
each of you. 

Well, of course Bully and Bawly thanked 
their Grandpa, though they really hadn’t ex- 
pected anything like that, and off they hopped 
to the store to spend the money. For they had 
saved all the pennies for a long time, and they 
were now allowed to buy something. 

Bully bought a picture post card to send to 
Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, and Bawly 
bought a bean shooter. That is a long piece of 
tin, with a hole through it like a pipe, and you 
put in a bean at one end, blow on the other end, 
and out pops the bean like a cork out of a soda 
water bottle. 

“ What are you going to do with that bean 
shooter? ” asked Bully of his brother. 

“ Oh, I’m going to carry it instead of a gun,” 
said Bawly, “ and if I see that bad alligator, or 
snake, again I’ll shoot ’em with beans.” 

“ Beans, won’t hurt ’em much,” spoke Bully. 

“ No, but maybe the beans will tickle ’em so 
they’ll laugh and run away,” replied his brother. 
Then they hopped on through the woods, and 
pretty soon they met Peetie and Jackie Bow 
Wow, the puppy dogs. 


Bawly No-Tail and Jollie Longtail 67 


“ Let’s have a ball game,” suggested Peetie, as 
he wiggled his left ear. 

“ Oh, yes! ” cried Jackie, as he dug a hole in 
the ground to see if he could find a juicy bone, 
but he couldn’t I’m sorry to say. 

Well, they started the ball game, and Bawly 
was so fond of his bean shooter that he kept it 
with him all the while, and several times, when 
the balls were high in the air, he tried to hit them 
by blowing beans at them. But he couldn’t, 
though the beans popped out very nicely. 

But finally the other players didn’t like Bawly 
to do that, for the beans came down all around 
them, and tickled them so that they had to laugh, 
and they couldn’t play ball. 

Then Bawly said he’d lay his shooter down in 
the grass, but before he could do so his brother 
Bully knocked such a high flying ball that you 
could hardly see it. 

“ Oh, grab it, Bawly! Grab it! ” cried Peetie 
and Jackie, dancing about on the ends of their 
tails, for Bawly was supposed to chase after the 
balls. Away he went with his bean shooter, 
almost as fast as an automobile. 

Farther and farther went the ball, and Bawly 
was chasing after it. All of a sudden he found 
himself in the back yard of a house where the ball 
had bounced over the fence, and of course, being 


68 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


a good ball player, Bawly kept right on after 
it. But he never expected to find himself in the 
yard, and he certainly never expected to see what 
he did see. 

For there was a great, big, ugly, cruel boy, 
and he had something in his hand. At first 
Bawly couldn’t tell what it was, and then, to 
his surprise, he saw that the boy had caught 
Jollie Longtail, the nice little mousie boy, about 
whom I once told you. 

“ Ah ha! Now I have you! ” cried the boy to 
the mouse. “You went in the feed box in my 
father’s barn, and I have caught you.” 

“ Oh, but I only took the least bit of corn,” 
said Jollie Longtail. But the boy didn’t under- 
stand the mouse language, though Bawly did. 

“I’m going to tie your tail in a knot, hang 
you over the clothes line and then throw stones 
at you!” went on the cruel boy. “That will 
teach you to keep away from our place. We 
don’t like mice.” 

Well, poor Jollie Longtail shivered and 
shook, and tried to get away from that boy, but 
he couldn’t, and then the boy began tying a knot 
in the mousie’s tail, so he could fasten Jollie to 
the clothes line in the yard. 

“Oh, this is terrible!” cried Bawly, and he 
forgot all about the ball that was lying in the 


Bawly No-Tail and Jollie Longtail 69 


grass close beside him. “ How sorry I am for 
poor Jollie,” thought Bawly. 

“ There’s one knot! ” cried the boy as he made 
it. “Now for another!” 

Poor Jollie squirmed and wiggled, but he 
couldn’t get away. 

“ Now for the last knot, and then I’ll tie you 
on the clothes line,” spoke the boy, twisting 
Jollie’s tail very hard. 

“ Oh, if he ever gets tied on the clothes line that 
will be the last of him!” thought Bawly. “I 
wonder how I can save him? ” 

Bawly thought, and thought, and thought, 
and finally he thought of his bean shooter, and 
the beans he still had with him. 

“ That’s the very thing! ” he whispered. Then 
he hid down in the grass, where the boy couldn’t 
see him, and just as that boy was about to tie 
Jollie to the line, Bawly put a bean in the 
shooter, put the shooter in his mouth, puffed out 
his cheeks and “ bango! ” a bean hit the boy on 
the nose! 

“Ha! ’’cried the boy. “mo did that?” He 
looked all around and he thought, maybe, it was 
a hailstone, but there weren’t any storm clouds in 
the sky. Then the boy once more started to tie 
Jollie to the line. 

“ Bungo! ” went a bean on his left ear, hitting 
him quite hard. 


70 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Stop that! ” the boy cried, winking his eyes 
very fast. 

“ Cracko! ” went a bean on his right ear, for 
Bawly was blowing them very fast now. 

“ Oh, wait until I get hold of you, whoever you 
are! ” shouted the boy, looking all around, but he 
could see no one, for Bawly was hiding in the 
grass. 

“Smacko!” went a bean on the boy’s nose 
again, and then he danced up and down, and was 
so excited that he dropped poor Jollie in the 
soft grass, and away the mousie scampered to 
where he saw Bawly hiding. 

Then Bawly kindly loosened the knots in the 
mousie’s tail, picked up the ball, and away they 
both scampered back to the game, and told their 
friends what had happened. And maybe Jollie 
wasn’t thankful to Bawly! Well, I just guess he 
was! And that boy was so kerslastrated, about 
not being able to find out who blew the beans at 
him, that he stood right up on his head and wig- 
gled his feet in the air, and then ran into the 
house. 

Now, if it should happen that our pussy cat 
doesn’t go roller skating and fall down and hurt 
its little nose so he can’t lap up his milk, I’ll tell 
you next about Bully and the water bottle. 


STORY XI 


BULLY AND THE WATER BOTTLE 

Well, just as I expected, my little cat did go 
roller skating, and skated over a banana skin, 
and fell down and rubbed some of the fur off his 
ear. But anyhow I’ll tell you a story just the 
same, and it’s going to be about what happened 
to Bully No-Tail, the frog, when he had a water 
bottle. 

Do you know what a water bottle is? Now 
don’t be too sure. You might think it was a 
bottle made out of water, but instead it’s a bottle 
that holds water. Any kind of a bottle will do, 
and you can even take a milk bottle and put 
water in it if the milkman lets you. 

Well, one day, when Bully didn’t know what 
to do to have some fun, and when Bawly, his 
brother, had gone off to play ball, Bully thought 
about making a water bottle, as Johnnie Bushy- 
tail had told him how to do it. 

Bully took a bottle that once had held ink, and 
he cleaned it all out. Then he got a cork, and, 
taking one of his mamma’s long hatpins, he 
71 


72 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


made, with the sharp point, a number of holes 
through the cork, just as if it were a sieve, or a 
coffee strainer. Then Bully filled the bottle with 
water, put in the cork, and there he had a 
sprinkling- water-bottle, just as nice as you could 
buy in a store. 

“ Now I’ll have some fun! ” exclaimed Bully, 
as he jiggled the bottle up and down quite fast, 
with the cork end held down. The water 
squirted out from it just like from the watering 
can, when your mamma waters the flowers. 

4 4 1 guess I’ll go water the garden first,” 
thought Bully. So he hopped over to where 
there were some seeds planted and the little 
green sprouts were just pee ping up from the 
ground. Bully sprinkled water on the dry earth 
and made it soft so the flowers could come 
through more easily. 

44 Oh, this is great! ” cried the frog boy, as he 
held the water bottle high in the air and let some 
drops sprinkle down all around on his own head 
and clothes. 

But please don’t any of you try that part of 
the trick unless you have on your bathing suit, 
for your mamma might not like it. As for 
Bully, it didn’t matter how wet he got, for frogs 
just like water, and they have on clothes that 
water doesn’t harm. 


Bully and the Water Bottle 


73 


So Bully watered all the flowers, and then he 
sprinkled the dust on the sidewalk and got a 
broom, and swept it nice and clean. 

“Ha! That’s a good boy!” said Grandpa 
Croaker, in his deepest voice, as he hopped out 
of the yard to go over and play checkers with 
Uncle Wiggily Longears. A very good boy, 
indeed. Here is a penny for you,” and he gave 
Bully a bright, new one. 

“I’m going to buy some marbles, as I lost all 
mine,” said Bully, as he thanked his Grandpa 
yery kindly and hopped off to the store. 

But before Bully had hopped very far he 
happened to think that his water bottle was 
empty, so he stopped at a nice cold spring that he 
knew of, beside the road, and filled it — that is, he 
filled his water bottle, you know, not the spring. 

“ For,” said Bully to himself, “ I might hap- 
pen to meet a bad dog, and if he came at me to 
bite me I could squirt water in his eyes, almost as 
well as if I had a water pistol, and the dog would 
howl and run away.” 

Well, the frog boy hopped along, and pretty 
soon he came to a store where the marbles were. 
He bought a penny’s worth of brown and blue 
ones, and then the monkey-doodle, who kept the 
store, gave him a piece of candy. 

“ Now I’ll find some of the boys, and have a 


74 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


game of marbles,” thought Bully, as he took 
three big hops and two little ones. Then he 
hopped into the woods to look for his friends. 

Well, Bully hadn’t gone on very far before, 
just as he was hopping past a big stump, he 
heard a voice calling: 

“ Now I have you! ” 

Well, you should have seen that frog boy 
jump, for he thought it was a savage wolf or 
fox about to grab him. But, instead he saw 
Johnnie Bushy tail, the squirrel, and right in 
front of Johnnie was a great big horned owl, 
with large and staring eyes. 

“Now I have you! ” cried the owl again, and 
this time Bully knew the bad bird was speaking 
to poor Johnnie Bushytail and not to him. And 
at that the owl put out one claw, and, before the 
squirrel could run away the savage creature had 
grabbed him. “ Didn’t I tell you I had you? ” 
the bird asked, sarcastic like. 

“ Yes, I guess I did,” answered Johnnie, 
trembling so that his tail looked like a dusting 
brush. “ But please let me go, Mr. Owl. I 
never did anything to you.” 

“ Didn’t you climb up a tree just now? ” asked 
the owl, real saucy like. 

“ Yes. I guess I did,” answered Johnnie. 


Bully and the Water Bottle 


75 


“ I’m always climbing trees, you know. But 
that doesn’t hurt you; does it? ” 

“ Yes, it does, for you knocked down a piece 
of bark, and it hit me on the beak. And for that 
I’m going to take you home and cook you for 
dinner,” the owl hooted. 

“Oh, please, please don’t!” begged poor 
Johnnie, but the owl said he would, just the 
same, and he began to get ready to fly off to his 
nest with the squirrel. 

“ Ha, I must stop that, if it’s possible,” thought 
Bully, the frog, who was still hiding behind the 
stump. “ I mustn’t let the owl carry Johnnie 
away. But how can I stop him? ” Bully peeked 
around the edge of the stump and saw the owl 
squeezing poor Johnnie tighter and tighter in his 
claws. 

“ Ah, I have it ! ” cried Bully. “ My water 
bottle and my marbles ! ” And with that he 
hopped softly up on top of the stump, and lean- 
ing over the edge he saw below him the owl 
holding Johnnie. Then Bully took the water 
bottle, turned it upside down, and he sprinkled 
the water out as hard as he could on that savage 
owl’s back. Down it fell in a regular shower. 

“My goodness me!” cried the owl. “It’s 
raining and I have no umbrella! I’ll get all 
wet! ” 


76 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Then Bully squirted out more water, shaking 
it from the bottle as hard as he could, and he rat- 
tled his bag of marbles until they sounded like 
thunder and hailstones, and the owl looked up, 
but couldn’t see Bully on the stump for the water 
was in his eyes. Then, being very much afraid 
of rain and thunder storms, that bad owl bird 
suddenly flew away, leaving Johnnie Bushytail 
on the ground, scared but safe. 

“ Ha! That’s the time the water bottle did a 
good trick!” cried Bully, as he went to see if 
J ohnnie was hurt. But the squirrel wasn’t, very 
much, and he could soon scramble home, after 
thanking Bully very kindly. 

And that owl was so wet that he caught cold 
and had the epizootic for a w^eek, and it served 
him right. Now in case the baby’s rattle box 
doesn’t bounce into the pudding dish and scare 
the chocolate cake. I’ll tell you next about Bawly 
going hunting. 


STORY XII 

BAWLY NO-TAIL GOES HUNTING 

“ Oh, Grandpa, will you please tell us a 
story? ” begged Bully and Bawly No-Tail one 
evening after supper, when they sat beside the 
old gentleman frog, who was reading a news- 
paper. “ Do tell us a story about a giant.” 

“ Ha! Hum! ” exclaimed Grandpa Croaker. 
“I’m afraid I don’t know any giant stories, but 
I’ll tell you one about how I once went hunting 
and was nearly caught myself.” 

“Oh, that will be fine!” cried the two frog 
boys, so their Grandpa took one of them up on 
each knee, and in his deepest, bass, rumbling, 
stumbling, bumbling voice he told them the 
story. 

It was a very good story, and some day per- 
haps I may tell it to you. It was about how, 
when Grandpa was a young frog, he started out 
to hunt blackberries, and got caught in a briar 
bush and couldn’t get loose for ever so long, and 
the mosquitoes bit him very hard, all over. 

77 


78 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


“ And after that I never went hunting black- 
berries without taking a mosquito netting 
along,” said the old frog gentleman, as he finished 
his story. 

“ My but that was an adventure! ” cried Bully. 

“ That’s what!” agreed his brother. “You 
were very brave, Grandpa, to go off hunting 
blackberries all alone.” 

“Yes, I was considered quite brave and hand- 
some when I was young,” admitted the old 
gentleman frog, in his bass voice. “ But now, 
boys, run off to bed, and I’ll finish reading the 
paper.” 

The next morning when Bully got up he saw 
Bawly at the side of the bed, putting some beans 
in a bag, and taldng his bean shooter out from 
the bureau drawer where he kept it. 

“ What are you going to do, Bawly? ” asked 
Bully. 

“ I’m going hunting, as Grandpa did,” said his 
brother. 

“ But blackberries aren’t ripe yet. They’re 
not ripe until June or July,” objected Bully. 

“ I know it, but I’m going to hunt mosquitoes, 
not blackberries. I’m going to kill all I can 
with my bean shooter, and then there won’t be so 
many to bite the dear little babies this summer. 
Don’t you want to come along? ” asked Bawly. 


Bawly No-Tail Goes Hunting 


79 


“ I would if I had a bean shooter,” answered 
Bully. “ Perhaps I’ll go some other time. To- 
day I promised Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow I’d 
come over and play ball with them.” 

So Bully went to play ball, with the puppy 
dogs, and Bawly went hunting, after his mamma 
had said that he might, and had told him to be 
careful. 

“ I’ll put up a little lunch for you,” she said, 
“ so you won’t get hungry hunting mosquitoes in 
the woods.” 

Off Bawly hopped, with his lunch in a little 
basket on one leg and carrying his bean shooter, 
and plenty of beans. He knew a deep, dark, dis- 
mal stretch of woodland where there were so 
many mosquitoes that they wouldn’t have been 
afraid to bite even an elephant, if one had hap- 
pened along. You see there were so many of 
the mosquitoes that they ^vere bold and savage, 
like bears or lions. 

“ But just wait until I get at them with my 
bean shooter,” said Bawly bravely. “ Then 
they’ll be so frightened that they’ll fly away, and 
never come back to bother people any more.” 

On and on he hopped and pretty soon he could 
hear a funny buzzing noise. 

“ Those are the mosquitoes,” said the frog boy, 
“ I am almost at the deep, dark, dismal woods. 


80 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Now I must be brave, as my Grandpa was when 
he hunted blackberries; and, so that I may be 
very strong, to kill all the mosquitoes, I’ll eat 
part of my lunch now.” 

So Bawly sat down under a toadstool, for it 
was very hot, and he ate part of his lunch. He 
could hear the mosquitoes buzzing louder and 
louder, and he knew there must be many of 
them; thousands and thousands. 

“ Well, here I go! ” exclaimed the frog boy at 
length, as he wrapped up in a paper what was 
left of his lunch, and got his bean shooter all 
ready. “Now for the battle. Charge! For- 
ward, March! Bang-bang! Bung-bung! ” and 
he made a noise like a fife and drum going up 
hill. 

“ Well, I wonder what that can be coming into 
our woods?” asked one mosquito of another as 
he stopped buzzing his wings a moment. 

“ It looks like a frog boy,” was the reply of 
a lady mosquito. 

“ It is,” spoke a third mosquito, sharpening his 
biting bill on a stone. “ Let’s sting him so he’ll 
never come here again.” 

“ Yes, let’s do it! ” they all agreed. 

So they all got ready with their stingers, and 
Bawly hopped nearer and nearer. They were 
just going to pounce on him and bite him to 


Bawly No-Tail Goes Hunting 


81 


pieces when he suddenly shot a lot of beans at 
them, hitting quite a number of mosquitoes and 
killing a few. 

“ My! What’s this? What’s this? ” cried the 
mosquitoes that weren’t killed. “ What is hap- 
pening? ” and they were very much surprised, 
not to say startled. 

“This must be a war!” said some others. 
“ This frog boy is fighting us! ” 

“That’s just what I’m doing!” cried Bawly 
bravely. “ I’m punishing you for what you did 
to Grandfather Croaker! Bang-bang! Bung- 
bung! Shoot! Fire! Aim! Forward, March ! ” 
and with that he shot some more beans at the 
mosquitoes, killing hundreds of them so they 
could never more bite little babies or boys and 
girls, to say nothing of papas and mammas and 
aunts and uncles. 

Oh, how brave Bawly was with his bean 
shooter ! He made those mosquitoes dance 
around like humming birds, and they were very 
much frightened. Then Bawly took a rest and 
ate some more of his lunch, laying his bean 
shooter down on top of a stump. 

“ Now the battle will go on again! ” he cried, 
when he had eaten the last crumb and felt very 
strong. But, would you believe me, while he was 


82 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


eating, those mosquitoes had sneaked up and 
taken away his bean shooter. 

“Oh, this is terrible !” cried Bawly, as he 
saw that his tin shooter was gone. “Now I 
can’t fight them any more.” 

Then the mosquitoes knew that the frog boy 
didn’t have his bean-gun with him, for they had 
hid it, and they stung him, so much that, maybe, 
they would have stung him to death if it hadn’t 
happened that Dickie and Nellie Chip-Chip, the 
sparrows, flew along just then. Into the swarm 
of mosquitoes the birds flew, and they caught 
hundreds of them in their bills and killed them, 
and the rest were so frightened that they flew 
away, and in that manner Bawly was saved. 

So that’s how he went hunting all alone, and 
when he got home his Grandpa Croaker and all 
the folks thought him very brave. Now, in case I 
see a red poodle dog, with yellow legs, standing 
on his nose while he wags his tail at the pussy 
cat, I’ll tell you next about Papa No-Tail and 
the giant. 








































































































































































































































































































STORY XIII 


PAPA NO-TAIL AND THE GIANT 

Did you ever hear the story of the giant with 
two heads, who chased a whale, and caught him 
by the tail, and tickled the terrible monster with 
a big, jcrooked hickory fence rail? 

Well, I’m not going to tell you a story about 
that giant, but about another, who had only one 
head, though it was a very large one, and this 
giant nearly scared Papa No-Tail, the frog 
gentleman, into a conniption fit, which is almost 
as bad as the epizootic. 

It happened one day that there wasn’t any 
work for Mr. No-Tail to do at the wallpaper 
factory, where he dipped his feet in ink and 
hopped around to make funny black, and red, 
and green, and purple splotches, so they would 
turn out to be wallpaper patterns. The reason 
there was no work was because the Pelican bird 
drank up all the ink in his big bill, so they 
couldn’t print any paper. 

“ I have a holiday,” said Papa No-Tail, as he 
83 


84 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


hopped about, “ and I am going to have a good 
time.” 

“ What are you going to do? ” asked Grandpa 
Croaker as he started off across the pond to play 
checkers with Uncle Wiggily Longears. 

“ I think I will take Bully and Bawly and go 
for a swim, and then we’ll take a hop through the 
woods and perhaps we may find an adventure,” 
answered Mr. No- Tail. 

So he went up to the house, where Bully and 
Bawly, the two boy frogs, were just getting 
ready to go out roller skating, and Mr. No-Tail 
asked them if they didn’t want to come with him 
instead. 

“Indeed we do!” cried Bully, as he winked 
both eyes at his brother, for he knew that 
when his papa took them out hopping, he used 
often to stop in a store and buy them peanuts or 
candy. 

Well, pretty soon, not so very long, in a little 
while, Papa No-Tail and the two boys got to 
the edge of the pond, and into the water they 
hopped to have a swim. My! I just wish you 
could have seen them. Papa No-Tail swam in 
ever so many different ways, and Bully and 
Bawly did as well as they could. And, would 
you believe me? just as Bully was getting out of 
the water, up on the bank, ready to go hopping 


Papa No-Tail an,d the Giant 


85 


off with Bawly and his papa through the woods, 
a big fish nearly grabbed the little frog boy by 
his left hind leg. 

“ Oh my ! ” he cried, and his papa hopped over 
quickly to where Bully was, and threw a stick 
at the bad fish to scare him away. 

“ Ha! hum! ” exclaimed Mr. No-Tail, “ that 
was nearly an adventure, Bully, but I don’t like 
that kind. Come on into the woods, boys, and 
we’ll see what else we can find.” 

So into the woods they went, where there were 
tall trees, and little trees, and bushes, and old 
stumps where owls lived. And the green leaves 
were just coming out nicely on the branches, and 
there were a few early May flowers peeping up 
from under the leaves and moss, just as baby 
peeps up at you, out from under the bedclothes 
in the morning when the sun awakens her. 

“ Oh, isn’t it just lovely here in the woods! ” 
cried Bully. 

“ It is certainly very fine,” agreed Bawly, 
and he looked up in the treetops, where J ohnnie 
and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, were frisking 
about, and then down on the ground, where Sam- 
mie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, were sitting 
beside an old stump, in which there were no bad 
owls to scare them. 

“ Now I think we’ll sit down here and eat our 


86 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


lunch,” said Papa No-Tail after a while, as they 
came to a nice little open place in the woods, 
where there was a large flat stump, which they 
could use as a table. So they opened the baskets 
of lunch that Mamma No-Tail had put up for 
them, and they were eating their watercress 
sandwiches, and talking of what they would do 
next, when, all of a sudden, they heard a most 
startling, tremendous and extraordinary noise in 
the bushes. 

It was just as if an elephant were tramping 
along, and at first Papa No-Tail thought it 
might be one of those big beasts, or perhaps an 
alligator. 

“ Keep quiet, boys,” he whispered, “ and per- 
haps he won’t see us.” So they kept very quiet, 
and hid down behind the stump. 

But the noise came nearer and nearer, and it 
sounded louder and louder, and, before you could 
spell “ cat ” or “ rat,” out from under a big, tall 
tree stepped a big, tall giant. Oh, he was a fear- 
ful looking fellow! His head was as big as a 
washtub full of clothes on a Monday morning, 
and his legs were so long that I guess he could 
have hopped, skipped and jumped across the 
street in about three steps. 

“ Oh, look! ” whispered Bully. 

“ Oh, isn’t he terrible ! ” said Bawly, softly. 


Papa No-Tail and the Giant 


87 


“Hush!” cautioned their papa. “Please 
keep quiet and maybe he won’t see us.” 

So they kept as quiet as they could, hoping the 
giant would pass by, but instead he came right 
over to the stump, and the first any one knew he 
had sat down on the top of it. I tell you it’s a 
good thing Bully and Bawly and their papa had 
hopped off or they would have been crushed flat. 
But they weren’t, I’m glad to say, for they were 
hiding down behind the stump, and they didn’t 
dare hop away for fear the giant would see, or 
hear them. 

The big man sat on the stump, and he looked 
all about, and he saw some bread and watercress 
crumbs where Bully and Bawly and their papa 
had been eating their lunch. 

“ My! ” exclaimed the giant. “ Some one has 
been having dinner here. Oh, how hungry I 
am ! I wish I had some dinner. I believe I could 
eat the hind legs of a dozen frogs if I had them! ” 

Well, you should have seen poor Bully and 
Bawly tremble when they heard that. 

“ This must be a terrible giant,” said Mr. No- 
Tail. “Now I tell you what I am going to do. 
Bully, I will hide you and Bawly in this hollow 
stump, and then I’ll hop out where the giant can 
see me. He’ll chase after me, but I’ll hop away 
as fast as I can, and perhaps I can get to some 


83 


Bully and Bawly No Tail 


water and hide before he catches me. Then he’ll 
he so far away from the stump that it will be safe 
for you boys to come out.” 

Well, Bully and Bawly didn’t want their papa 
to do that, fearing he would be hurt, but he said 
it was best, so they hid inside the stump, and out 
Mr. No-Tail hopped to where the giant could 
see him. Papa No-Tail expected the big man 
would chase after him, but instead the giant 
never moved and only looked at the frog and 
then he laughed and said: 

“Hello, Mr. Frog! Let’s see you hop!” 
And then, what do you think that giant did? 
Why he took off his head, which wasn’t real, 
being hollow and made of paper, like a false face, 
so that his own head went inside of it. And there 
he was only a nice, ordinary man after all. 

“What! Aren’t you a giant?” cried Papa 
No-Tail, who was so surprised that he hadn’t 
hopped a single hop. 

“ No,” said the man; “ I am only a clown giant 
in a circus, but I ran away to-day so I could see 
the flowers in the woods. I was tired of being in 
the circus so much and doing funny tricks.” 

“ But — but — what makes you so tall? ” asked 
Mr. No-Tail. 

“ Oh, those are wooden stilts on my legs,” said 


Papa ISTo-Tail and the Giant 


89 


the giant. “ They make me as tall as a clothes 
post, these stilts do.” 

And, surely enough, they did, being like 
wooden legs, and the man wasn’t a real giant at 
all, but very nice, like Mr. ISTo-Tail, only dif- 
ferent ; and he left off his big hollow paper head, 
and Bully and Bawly came out of the stump, 
and the circus clown-giant, just like those you 
have seen, told the frog boys lots of funny 
stories. Then they gave him some of their lunch 
and showed him where flowers grew. Afterward 
the make-believe giant went back to the circus, 
much happier than he had been at first. 

So that’s all now, if you please, but if the rose 
bush in our back yard doesn’t come into the house 
and scratch the frosting off the chocolate cake 
I’ll tell you next about Bawly and the church 
steeple. 


STORY XIY 

BAWLY AND THE CHURCH STEEPLE 

After Bully and Bawly No-Tail, the frogs, 
and their papa, reached home from the woods, 
where they met the make-believe giant, as I told 
you in the story before this one, they talked 
about it for ever so long, and agreed that it was 
quite an adventure. 

44 1 wish I’d have another adventure to-mor- 
row,” said Bawly, as he went to bed that night. 

44 Perhaps you may,” said his papa. 44 Only I 
can’t be with you to-morrow, as I have to go to 
work in my wallpaper factory. We made the 
Pelican bird give back the ink, so the printing 
presses can run again.” 

Well, the next day the frog boys’ mamma said 
to them: 

44 Bully and Bawly, I wish you would go to 
the store for me. I want a dozen lemons and 
some sugar, for I am going to make lemonade, in 
case company comes to-night.” 

90 


Bawly and the Church Steeple 91 


“ All right, we’ll go,” said Bully very politely. 
“ I’ll get the sugar and Bawly can get the 
lemons.” 

So they went to the store and got the things, 
and when they were hopping out, the storekeeper, 
who was a very kind elephant gentleman, gave 
them each a handful of peanuts, which they put 
in the pockets of their clothes, that water couldn’t 
hurt. 

Well, when Bully and Bawly were almost 
home, they came to a place where there were two 
paths. One went through the woods and the 
other across the pond. 

“ I’ll tell you what let’s do,” suggested Bully. 
“ You go by the woodland path, Bawly, and I’ll 
go by way of the pond and we’ll see who will get 
home first.” 

“ All right,” said Bawly, so on he hopped 
through the woods, going as fast as he could, 
for he wanted to beat. And Bully swam as fast 
as he could in the water, carrying the sugar, for it 
was in a rubber bag, so it wouldn’t get wet. But 
now I’m going to tell you what happened to 
Bawly. 

He was hopping along, carrying the lemons, 
when all at once he heard some one calling to 
him: 

“ Hello, little frog, are you a good jumper? 5 ' 


92 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Bawly looked all around, and there right by a 
great, big stone he saw a savage, ugly fox. At 
first Bawly was going to throw a lemon at the bad 
animal, to scare him away, and then he happened 
to think that the lemons were soft and wouldn’t 
hurt the fox very much. 

“ Don’t be afraid,” said the fox, “ I won’t bite 
you. I wouldn’t hurt you for the world, little 
frog,” and then the fox came slowly from behind 
the stone, and Bawly saw that both the sly 
creature’s front feet were lame from the rheu- 
matism, like Uncle Wiggily’s, so the fox couldn’t 
run at all. Bawly knew he could easily hop away- 
from him, as the sly animal couldn’t go any 
faster than a snail. 

“ Oh, I guess the reason you won’t hurt me, is 
because you can’t catch me,” said Bawly, slow 
and careful-like. 

“ Oh, I wouldn’t hurt you, anyhow,” went on 
the fox, trying not to show how hungry he was, 
for really, you know, he wanted to eat Bawly, but 
he knew he couldn’t catch him, with his sore feet, 
so he was trying to think of another way to get 
hold of him. “ I just love frogs,” said the fox. 

“ I guess you do,” thought Bawly. “ You like 
them too much. I’ll keep well away from you.” 

“ But what I want to know,” continued the 
fox, “ is whether you are a good jumper, Bawly.” 


Bawly and the Church Steeple 9& 


“ Yes, I am — pretty good,” said the frog boy. 

“ Could you jump over this stone? ” asked the 
fox, slyly, pointing to a little one. 

“ Easily,” said Bawly, and he did it, lemons 
and all. 

“Could you jump over that stump?” asked 
the fox, pointing to a big one. 

“ Easily,” answered Bawly, and he did it, 
lemons and all. 

“Ha! Here is a hard one,” said the fox. 
“ Could you jump over my head? ” 

“ Easily,” replied Bawly, and he did it, lemons 
and all. 

“ Well, you certainly are a good jumper,” 
spoke the fox, wagging his bushy tail with a 
puzzled air. “ I know something you can’t do, 
though.” 

“What is it?” inquired Bawly. 

“ You can’t jump over the church steeple.” 

“I believe I can!” exclaimed Bawly, before 
he thought. You see he didn’t like the fox to 
think he couldn’t do it, for Bawly was proud, and 
that’s not exactly right, and it got him into 
trouble, as you shall soon see. 

You know that fox was very sly, and the 
reason he wanted Bawly to try to jump over 
the church steeple was so the frog boy would fall 
down from a great height and be hurt, and then 


94 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


the fox could eat him without any trouble, sore 
feet or none. I tell you it’s best to look out 
when a fox asks you to do anything. 

44 Yes, I can jump over the church steeple,” 
declared Bawly, and he hopped ahead until he 
came to the church, the fox limping slowly along, 
and thinking what a fine meal he’d have wheu 
poor Bawly fell, for the fox knew what a terrible 
jump it was, and how anyone who made it would 
be hurt, but the frog boy didn’t. 

Bawly tucked the bag of lemons under his leg, 
and he took a long breath, and he gave a jump, 
but he didn’t go very far up in the air as his foot 
slipped. 

44 Ha! I knew you couldn’t do it!” sneered 
the fox. 

44 Watch me! ” cried Bawly, and this time he 
gave a most tremendous and extraordinary 
jump, and right up to the church steeple he went, 
but he didn’t go over it, and it’s a good thing, too, 
or he’d have been all broken to pieces when he 
landed on the ground again. But instead he hit 
right on top of the church steeple and stayed 
there, where there was a nice, round, golden ball 
to sit on. 

44 Jump down! Jump down!” cried the fox, 
for he wanted to eat Bawly. 

44 No, I’m going to stay here,” answered 


Bawly and the Church Steeple 95 


the frog boy, for now he saw how far it was to 
the ground, and he knew he’d be killed if he 
leaped off the steeple. 

Well, the fox tried to get him to jump down, 
but Bawly wouldn’t. And then the frog boy 
began to wonder how he’d ever get home, for the 
steeple was very high. 

Then what do you think Bawly did? Why, he 
took a lemon and threw it at the church bell, 
hoping to ring it so the janitor would come and 
help him down. But the lemon was too soft to 
ring the bell loudly enough for any to hear. 

Then Bawly thought of his peanuts, and he 
threw a handful of them at the church bell in the 
steeple, making it ring like an alarm clock, and 
the janitor, who was sweeping out the church for 
Sunday, heard the bell, and he looked up and 
saw the frog on the steeple. Then the janitor, 
being 3 , kind man, got a ladder and helped Bawly 
down, and the fox, very much disappointed, 
limped away, and didn’t eat the frog boy after 
all. 

“ But you must never try to jump over a 
steeple again,” said Bawly’s mamma when he 
told her about it, after he got home with the 
lemons, and found Bully there ahead of him with 
the sugar. 

So Bawly promised that he wouldn’t, and he 


96 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


never did. And now, if the postman brings me 
a pink letter with a green stamp on from the 
playful elephant in the circus, I’ll tell you next 
about Bully and the basket of chips. 


STORY XV 


BULLY AND THE BASKET OF CHIPS 

One nice warm day, as Bully No-Tail, the 
frog boy, was hopping along through the woods, 
he felt so very happy that he whistled a little tune 
on a whistle he made from a willow stick. And 
the tune he whistled went like this, when you sing 
it: 

“ I am a little froggie hoy, 

Without a bit of tail. 

In fact I’m like a guinea pig. 

Who eats out of a pail. 

“ I swim, I hop, I flip, I flop, 

I also sing a tune, 

And some day I am going to try 
To hop up to the moon. 

“ Because you see the man up there 
Must very lonesome be, 

Without a little froggie boy, 

Like Bawly or like me.” 

97 


98 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Oh, ho! I wouldn’t try that if I were you,” 
suddenly exclaimed a voice. 

“ Try what? ” asked Bully, before he thought. 

“ Try to jump up to the moon,” went on the 
voice. “ Don’t you remember what happened to 
your brother Bawly when he tried to jump over 
the church steeple? Don’t do it, I beg of you.” 

“ Oh, I wasn’t really going to jump to the 
moon,” went on Bully. “ I only put that in the 
song to make it sound nice. But who are you, if 
you please? ” for the frog boy looked all around 
and he couldn’t see any one. 

“ Here I am, over here,” the voice said, and 
then out from behind a clump of tall, waving cat- 
tail plants, that grew in a pond of water, there 
stepped a long-legged bird, with a long, sharp 
bill like a pencil or a penholder. 

“ Oh ho! So it’s you, is it?” asked Bully, 
making ready to hop away, for as soon as he saw 
that long-legged and sharp-billed bird, he knew 
right away that he was in danger. For the bird 
was a heron, which is something like a stork that 
lives on chimneys in a country called Holland. 
And the heron bird eats frogs and mice and little 
animals like that. 

“ Yes, it is I,” said the heron. “ Won’t you 
please sing that song on your whistle again, 
Bully? I am very fond of music.” And, as he 


Bully and the Basket of Chips 


99 


said that, the heron slyly took another step 
nearer to the frog boy, intending to grab him up 
in his sharp beak. 

“ I — I don’t believe I have time to sing another 
verse,” answered Bully. 44 And anyhow, there 
aren’t any more verses. So I’ll be going,” and 
he hopped along, and hid under a stone where 
the big, big savage bird couldn’t get him. 

Oh, my ! how angry the heron was when he saw 
that he couldn’t fool Bully. He stamped his 
long legs on the ground and said all sorts of mean 
things, just because Bully didn’t want to be 
eaten up. 

44 Now I wonder how I’m going to get away 
from here without that bird biting me? ” thought 
poor Bully, after a while. 

Well, it did seem a hard thing to do, for the 
heron was there waiting for Bully to come out, 
when he would jab his bill right through the frog 
boy. Then Bully thought and thought, which 
you must always do when you are in trouble, or 
have hard examples at school, and finally Bully 
thought of a plan. 

44 I’ll hop along and go from one stone to an- 
other,” he said to himself, 44 and by hiding under 
the different rocks the heron can’t get me.” 

So he tried that plan, hopping very quickly, 
and he got along all right, for every time the 


100 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


heron tried to stick the frog boy with his sharp 
bill, the bird would pick at a stone, under which 
Bully was hidden, and that would make him 
more angry than ever. I mean it would make the 
heron angry, not Bully. 

Well, the frog boy was almost home, and he 
knew that pretty soon the heron would have to 
turn back and run away, for the bird wouldn’t 
dare go right up to Bully’s house. Then, all of 
a sudden, Bully saw a poor old mouse lady going 
along through the woods, with a basket of chips 
on her arm. She had picked them up where some 
men were cutting wood, and the mouse lady in- 
tended to put the chips in her kitchen stove, and 
boil the teakettle with them. 

She walked along, when, all of a sudden, she 
stumbled on an acorn, and fell down, basket and 
all, and she hurt her paw on a thorn, so she 
couldn’t carry the basket any more.” 

“ Oh, that’s too bad! ” exclaimed Bully. “ I 
must help the poor mouse lady.” So, forgetting 
all about the savage, long-billed bird, waiting to 
grab him, out from under a stone hopped Bully, 
and he picked up the basket of chips for the poor 
mouse lady. 

“ Oh, thank you kindly, little frog boy,” she 
said, and then the heron made a rush for Bully 


Bully and the Basket of Chips 


101 


and the mouse lady and tried to stick them both 
with his sharp beak. 

“ Oh, quick! Quick! Hop in here with me! ” 
exclaimed the mouse lady, as she pointed to a 
hole in a hollow stump, and into it she and Bully 
went, basket of chips and all, just in time to 
escape the bad heron bird. 

“ Oh, I’ll get you yet! I’ll get you yet!” 
screeched the bird, hopping along, first on one 
leg and then on the other, and dancing about in 
front of the stump. “ I’ll eat you both, that l 
what I will! ” Then he tried to reach in with his 
bill and pull the frog boy and the mouse lady out 
of the hollow stump, but he couldn’t, and then 
he stood on one leg and hid the other one up 
under his feathers to keep it warm. 

“ I’ll wait here until you come out, if I have to 
wait all night,” said the bird. “ Then I’ll get 
you.” 

“ I guess he will, too,” said Bully, peeping out 
of a crack. “ We are safe here, but how am I 
going to get home, and how are you going to get 
home, Mrs. Mouse? ” 

“ I will show you,” she answered. “ We’ll 
play a trick on that heron. See, I have some 
green paint, that I was going to put on my 
kitchen cupboard. Now we’ll take some of it, 
and we’ll paint a few of the chips green, and 


102 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


they’ll look something like a frog. Then we’ll 
throw them out to the heron, one at a time, and 
he’ll be so hungry that he’ll grab them without 
looking at them. When he eats enough green 
chips he’ll have indigestion, and be so heavy, like 
a stone, that he can’t chase after us when we go 
out.” 

“ Good! ” cried Bully. So they painted some 
chips green, just the color of Bully, and they 
tossed one out of the stump toward the bird. 

“ Now I have you!” cried the heron, and, 
thinking it was the frog boy, he grabbed up that 
green chip as quick as anything. And, before he 
knew what it was, he had swallowed it, and then 
Mrs. Mouse and Bully threw out more green 
chips, and the bad bird didn’t know they were 
only wood, but he thought they were a whole lot 
of green frogs hopping out, and he gobbled them 
up, one after another, as fast as he could. 

And, in a little while, the sharp chips stuck out 
all over inside of him, like potatoes in a sack, and 
the heron had indigestion, and was so heavy that 
he couldn’t run. Then Bully and Mrs. Mouse 
came out of the stump, and went away, leaving 
the bad bird there, unable to move, and as angry 
as a fox without a tail. Bully helped Mrs. 
Mouse carry the rest of the chips home, and then 
he hopped home himself. 


Bully and the Basket of Chips 103 


Now that’s the end of this story, but I know 
another, and if the little boy across the street 
doesn’t throw his baseball at my pussy cat and 
make her tail so big I can’t get her inside the 
house. I’ll tell you about Bawly and his whistles. 


STORY XYI 


BAWLY AND HIS WHISTLES 

Did you ever make a willow whistle — that is, 
out of a piece of wood off a willow tree? 

No? Well, it's lots of fun, and when I was a 
boy I used to make lots of them. Big ones and 
little ones, and the kind that would almost make 
as much noise as some factory whistles. If you 
can’t make one yourself, ask your big brother, 
or your papa, or some man, to make you one. 

Maybe your big sister can, for some girls, like 
Lulu Wibble wobble, the duck, can use a knife 
almost as good as a boy. 

Well, if I’m going to tell you about Bawly 
No-Tail, the frog, and his whistles I guess I’d 
better start, hadn’t I ? and not talk so much about 
big brothers and sisters. 

One afternoon Bawly was hopping along in 
the woods. It was a nice, warm day, and the 
wind was blowing in the treetops, and the 
flowers were blooming down in the moss, and 
Bawly was very happy. 

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Bawly and his Whistles 


105 


He came to a willow tree, and he said to him- 
self: 

“ I guess I’ll make a whistle.” So he cut off 
a little branch, about eight inches long, and with 
his knife he cut one end slanting, just like the 
part of a whistle that goes in your mouth. Then 
he made a hole for the wind to come out of. 

Then he pounded the bark on the stick gently 
with his knife handle, and pretty soon the bark 
slipped off, just as mamma takes off her gloves 
after she’s been down to the five-and-ten-cent 
store. Then Bully cut away some of the white 
wood, slipped on the bark again, and he had a 
whistle. 

“My! That’s fine!” he cried, as he blew a 
loud blast on it. “ I think I’ll make another.” 

So he made a second one, and then he went on 
through the woods, blowing first one whistle and 
then the other, like the steam piano in the circus 
parade. 

“Hello!” suddenly cried a voice in the 
woods, “ who is making all that noise? ” 

“ I am,” answered Bawly. “ Who are you? ” 

“ I am Sammie Littletail,” was the reply, and 
out popped the rabbit boy from under a bush. 
“ Oh, what fine whistles! ” he cried when he saw 
those Bawly had made. “ I wish I had one.” 

“ You may have, Sammie,” answered Bawly 


106 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


kindly, and he gave his little rabbit friend the 
biggest^ and loudest^ whistle. Then the two boy 
animals went on through the woods, and pretty 
soon they came to a place where there was a pond 
of water. 

“ Excuse me for a minute,’’ said Bawly. “ I 
think I’ll have a little swim. Will you join me, 
Sammie?” he asked, politely. 

“ No,” answered the rabbit, “ I’m not a good 
swimmer, but I’ll wait here on the bank for you.” 

“ Then you may hold my whistle as well as 
your own,” said Bawly, “ for I might lose it 
under water.” Then into the pond Bawly 
hopped, and was soon swimming about like a 
fish. 

But something is going to happen, just as I 
expected it would, and I’ll tell you all about it, as 
I promised. 

All of a sudden, as Bawly was swimming 
about, that bad old skillery, sealery alligator, 
who had escaped from a circus, reared his ugly 
head up from the pond, where he had been sleep- 
ing, and grabbed poor Bawly in his claws. 

“ Oh, let me go ! ” cried the boy frog. “ Please 
let me go! ” 

“ No, I’ll not!” answered the alligator sav- 
agely. “ I had you and your brother once before, 
and you got away, but you shan’t get loose this 


Bawly and his Whistles 


107 


time. I’m going to take you to my deep, dark, 
dismal den, and then we’ll have supper to- 
gether.” 

Well, Bawly begged and pleaded, but it was 
of no use. That alligator simply would not let 
him go, but held him tightly in his claws, and 
made ugly faces at him, just like the masks on 
Hallowe’en night. 

All this while Sammie Littletail sat on the 
bank of the pond, too frightened, at the sight of 
the alligator, to hop away. He was afraid the 
savage creature might, at any moment, spring 
out and grab him also, and the rabbit boy just 
sat there, not knowing what to do. 

“ I wish I could save Bawly,” thought Sam- 
mie, 4 4 but how can I? I can’t fight a big alli- 
gator, and if I throw stones at him it will only 
make him more angry. Oh, if only there was a 
fireman or a policeman in the woods, I’d tell him, 
and he’d hit the alligator, and make him go away. 
But there isn’t a policeman or a fireman here ! ” 

Then the alligator started to swim away with 
poor Bawly, to take him off to his deep, dark, 
dismal den, when, all of a sudden, Sammie hap- 
pened to think of the two willow whistles he had 
— his own and Bawly’s. 

44 1 wonder if I could scare the alligator with 
them, and make him let Bawly go?” Sammie 


108 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


thought. Then he made up a plan. He crept 
softly to one side, and he hid behind a stump. 
Then he took the two whistles and he put them 
into his mouth. 

Next, the rabbit boy gathered up a whole lot 
of little stones in a pile. And the next thing he 
did was to build a little fire out of dry sticks. 
Then he hunted up an old tin can that had once 
held baked beans, but which now didn’t have any- 
thing in it. 

“ Oh, I’ll make that alligator wish he’d never 
caught Bawly!” exclaimed Sammie, working 
very quickly, for the savage reptile was fast 
swimming away with the frog boy. 

Sammie put the stones in the tin can, to- 
gether with some water, and he set the can on 
the fire to boil, and he knew the stones would 
get hot, too, as well as the water. And, surely 
enough, soon the water in the can was bubbling 
and the stones were very hot. 

Then Sammie took a long breath and he blew 
on those whistles, both at the same time as hard 
as ever he could. Then he took some wet moss 
and wrapped it around the hot can, so it wouldn’t 
burn his paws, and he tossed everything — hot 
water, hot stones, hot can and all — over into the 
pond, close to where the alligator was. Then 
Sammie blew on the whistles some more. Toot! 
Toot ! Toot ! Toot ! ” 


Bawly and his Whistles 


109 


“ Splash ! ” Into the water went the hot 
stones, hissing like snakes. 

“ Buzz! Bubble! Fizz! ” went the hot water 
all over the alligator. 

“ Toot! Toot! ” went the whistles which Sam- 
mie was blowing. 

“ Skizz! Skizz! ” went the hot fire-ashes that 
also fell into the pond. 

“ Oh, it’s a fire engine after me ! It’s a terrible 
fire engine after me! It’s spouting hot water 
and sparks on me!” cried the alligator, real 
frightened like, and then he was so scared that he 
let go of Bawly, and sank away down to the 
bottom of the pond to get out of the way of the 
hot stones and the hot water and the hot sparks, 
and where he couldn’t hear the screechy whistles 
which he thought came from fire engines. And 
Bawly swam safely to shore, and he thanked 
Sammie Littletail very kindly for saving his life, 
and they went on a little farther and had a nice 
game of tag together until supper time. 

So that’s how the whistles that Bawly made 
did him a good service, and next, if it stops rain- 
ing long enough so the moon can come out with- 
out getting wet, and go to the moving pictures, 
I’ll tell you about Grandpa Croaker and Uncle 
Wiggily Longears. 


STORY XVII 

GRANDPA CROAKER AND UNCLE WIGGILY 

After the trick which Sammie Littletail, the 
rabbit boy, played on the alligator, making him 
believe a fire engine was after him, it was some 
time before Bully or Bawly No-Tail, the frogs, 
went near that pond again, where the savage 
creature with the long tail lived, after he had 
escaped from the circus. 

“ Because it isn’t safe to go near that water,” 
said Bawly. 

44 No, indeed,” agreed his brother. 44 Some 
day we’ll get a pump and pump all the water 
out of the pond, and that will make the alliga- 
tor go away.” 

Well, it was about a week after this that 
Grandpa Croaker, the old gentleman frog, put 
on his best dress. Oh, dear me! Just listen to 
that, would you ! I mean he put on his best suit 
and started out, taking his gold-headed cane 
with him. 


no 


Grandpa Croaker and Uncle Wiggily 111 


“ Where are you going? ” asked Mrs. No- 
Tail. 

“ Oh! I think I’ll go over and play a game 
of checkers with Uncle Wiggily Longears,” re- 
plied the old gentleman frog. “ The last game 
we played he won, but I think I can win this 
time.” 

“ Well, whatever you do, Grandpa,” spoke 
Bully, “ please don’t go past the pond where the 
bad alligator is.” 

“ No, indeed, for he might bite you,” said 
Bawly, and their Grandpa promised that he 
would be careful. 

Well, he went along through the woods. 
Grandpa Croaker did, and pretty soon, after a 
while, not so very long, he came to where Uncle 
Wiggily lived, with Sammie and Susie Little- 
tail, and their papa and mamma and Miss Jane 
Fuzzy- Wuzzy, the muskrat nurse. But to-day 
only Uncle Wiggily was home alone, for every 
one else had gone to the circus. 

So the old gentleman goat — I mean frog — 
and the old gentleman rabbit sat down and 
played a game of checkers. And after they had 
played one game they played another, and an- 
other still, for Uncle Wiggily won the first game, 
and Grandpa Croaker won the second, and they 
wanted to see who would win the third. 


112 


Bully and ,Ba,wly No-Tail 


Well, they were playing away, moving the red 
and black round checkers back and forth on the 
red and black checker board, and they were talk- 
ing about the weather, and whether there’d be 
any more rain, and all things like that, when, all 
of a sudden Uncle Wiggily heard a noise at the 
window. 

“ Hello! What’s that? ” he cried, looking up. 

“ It sounded like some one breaking the glass,” 
answered Grandpa Croaker. “ I hope it wasn’t 
Bawly and Bully playing ball.” 

Then he looked up, and he saw the same thing 
that Uncle Wiggily saw, and the funny part of 
it was that Uncle Wiggily saw the same thing 
Grandpa Croaker saw. And what do you think 
this was ? 

Why it was that savage skillery, sealery alli- 
gator chap who had poked his ugly nose right in 
through the window, breaking the glass! 

“ Ha! What do you want here? ” cried Uncle 
Wiggily, as he made his ears wave back and 
forth like palm leaf fans, and twinkled his nose 
like two stars on a frosty night. 

“Yes, get right away from here, if you 
please!” said Grandpa Croaker in his deepest, 
hoarsest, rumbling, grumbling, thunder-voice. 

Get away, we want to play checkers.” 

But he couldn’t scare the alligator that way. 


Grandpa Croaker and Uncle Wiggily 113 


and the first thing he and Uncle Wiggily knew, 
that savage creature poked his nose still farther 
into the room. 

“Oh, ho!” the alligator cried. “Checkers; 
eh? Now, do you know I am very fond of 
checkers?” And with that, what did he do but 
put out his long tongue, and with one sweep he 
licked up the red checkers and the black checkers 
and the red and black squared checker board at 
one swallow, and down his throat it went, like a 
sled going down hill. 

“Ah, ha!” exclaimed the alligator. “Those 
were very fine checkers. I think I won that 
game ! ” he said, smiling a very big smile. 

“ Yes, I guess you did,” said Uncle Wiggily, 
sadly, as he looked for his cornstalk crutch. 
When he had it he was just going to hop away, 
and Grandpa Croaker was going with him, for 
they were afraid to stay there any more, when the 
alligator suddenly cried: 

“ Where are you going? ” 

“ Away,” said Uncle Wiggily. 

“ Far, far away,” said Grandpa Croaker, for 
it made him sad to think of all the nice red and 
black checkers, and the board also, being eaten 
up. 

“ Oh, no! I think you are going to stay right 


114 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


here/’ snapped the alligator. “ You’ll stay here, 
and as soon as I feel hungry again I’ll eat you.” 

And with that the savage creature with the 
double- jointed tail put out his claws, and in one 
claw he grabbed Uncle Wiggily and in the other 
he caught Grandpa Croaker, and there he had 
them both. 

Now, it so happened that a little while before 
this, Bully and Bawly No- Tail, the frog boys, 
had started out for a walk in the woods. 

“ Dear me,” said Bully, after a while, “ do 
you know I am afraid that something has hap- 
pened to Grandpa Croaker.” 

“ What makes you think so? ” asked his 
brother. ' 

“ Because I think he went past the pond where 
the alligator was, and that the bad creature got 
him.” 

“ Oh, I hope not,” replied Bawly. “ But let’s 
walk along and see.” So they walked past the 
pond, and they saw that it was all calm and 
peaceful, and they knew the alligator wasn’t in it. 

So they kept on to Uncle Wiggily’s house, 
thinking they would walk home with Grandpa 
Croaker, and when they came to where the old 
gentleman rabbit lived, they saw the alligator 
standing on his tail outside with his head in 
through the window. 


Grandpa Croaker and Uncle Wiggily 115 


“ I knew it! ” cried Bully. “ I knew that alli- 
gator would be up to some tricks! Perhaps he 
has already eaten Grandpa Croaker and Uncle 
Wiggily.” 

Just then they heard both the old animal gen- 
tlemen squealing inside the house, for the alli- 
gator was squeezing them. 

“They’re alive! They’re still alive!” cried 
Bawly. “We must save them! ” 

“ How? ” asked Bully. 

“ Let’s build a fire under the alligator’s tail,” 
suggested Bawly. “ He can’t see us, for his 
head is inside the room.” 

So what did those two brave frog hoys do hut 
make a fire of leaves under the alligator’s long 
tail. And he was so surprised at feeling the heat, 
that he turned suddenly around, dropped Uncle 
Wiggily and Grandpa Croaker on the table 
cloth, and then, pulling his head out of the win- 
dow, he turned it over toward the fire, and he 
cried great big alligator tears on the flames and 
put them out. Oh, what a lot of big tears he 
cried. 

Then he tried to catch Bully and Bawly, but 
the frog boys hopped away, and the alligator ran 
after them. Just then the man from the circus 
came, with a long rope and caught the savage 
beast and put him back in the cage and made 


116 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


him go to sleep, after he put some vaseline on his 
burns. 

So that’s how Bully and Bawly saved Uncle 
Wiggily and Grandpa , Croaker, by building a 
fire under the alligator’s long tail. 

And in case some one sends me a nice ring for 
my finger, or thumb, with a big orange in it in- 
stead of a diamond, I’ll tell you next about Mrs. 
No-Tail and Mrs. Longtail. 


STORY XVIII 


MRS. NO-TAIL AND MRS. LONGTAIL 

“Now, boys,” said Mrs. No-Tail, the frog 
lady, to Bully and Bawly one day, as she put on 
her best bonnet and shawl and started out, “ I 
hope you will be good while I am away.” 

“ Where are you going, mamma? ” asked 
Bully. 

“ I am going over to call on Mrs. Longtail, 
the mouse,” replied Mrs. No-Tail. “ She is the 
mother of the mice children, Jollie and Jillie 
Longtail, you know, and she has been ill with 
mouse-trap fever. So I am taking her some 
custard pie, and a bit of toasted cheese.” 

“ Oh, of course we’ll be good,” promised 
Bawly. “ But if you don’t come home in time 
for supper, mamma, what shall we eat? ” 

“ I have made up a cold supper for you and 
your papa and Grandpa Croaker,” said Mrs. 
No-tail. “ You will find it in the oven of the 
stove. You may eat at 5 o’clock, but I think I’ll 
be back before then.” 


117 


118 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Poor Mrs. No-Tail didn’t know what was 
going to happen to her, nor how near she was 
to never coming home at all again. But there, 
wait, if you please, I’ll tell you all about it. 

Away hopped Mrs. No-Tail through the 
woods, carrying the custard pie and the toasted 
cheese for Mrs. Longtail in a little basket. And 
when she got there, I mean to the mouse house, 
she found the mouse lady home all alone, for 
Jollie and Jillie and Squeaky-Eaky, the little 
cousin mouse, had gone to a surprise party, given 
by Nellie Chip -Chip, the sparrow girl. 

“ Oh, I’m so glad to see you,” said Mrs. Long- 
tail. “ Come right in, if you please, Mrs. No- 
Tail. I’ll make you a cup of tea.” 

“ Oh, are you able to be about? ” asked Bully’s 
mamma. 

“ Yes,” replied Jollie’s mamma. “ I am much 
better, thank you. I am so glad you brought me 
a custard pie. But now sit right down by the 
window, where you can smell the flowers in the 
garden, and I’ll make tea.” 

Well in a little while, about forty- ’leven sec- 
onds, Mrs. Longtail had the tea made, and she 
and Mrs. No-Tail sat in the dining-room eating 
it — I mean sipping it — for it was quite hot. And 
they were talking about spring housecleaning, 
and about moths getting in the closets, and eating 


Mrs. No-Tail and Mrs. Longtail 119 


up the blankets and the piano, and about whether 
there would be many mosquitoes this year, after 
Bawly had killed such numbers of them with his 
bean shooter. They talked of many other things, 
and finally Mrs. Longtail said: 

“ Let me get you another cup of tea, Mrs. No- 
Tail.” 

So the lady mouse went out in the kitchen to 
get the tea off the stove, and when she got there, 
what do you think she saw? Why, a great, big, 
ugly, savage cat had, somehow or other, gotten 
into the room and there he sat in front of the 
fire, washing his face, which was very dirty. 

“ Oh, ho! ” exclaimed the cat, blinking his yel- 
low eyes, “ I was wondering whether anybody 
was at home here.” 

“Yes, I am at home!” exclaimed the mouse 
lady, “ and I want you to get right out of my 
house, Mr. Cat.” 

“ Well,” replied the cat, licking his whiskers 
with his red tongue, “ I’m not going! That’s all 
there is to it. I am glad I found you at home, 
but you are not going to be at home long.” 

“ Why not? ” asked Mrs. Longtail, suspicious 
like. 

“ Because,” answered that bad cat, “ I am 
going to eat you up, and I think I’ll start right 


120 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Oh, don’t!” begged Mrs. Longtail, as she 
tried to run back into the dining-room, where 
Mrs. No-Tail was sitting. But the savage cat 
was too quick for her, and in an instant he had 
her in his paws, and was glaring at her with 
his yellowish-green eyes. 

“ I don’t know whether to eat you head first 
or tail first, 5 ’ said the cat, as he looked at the poor 
mouse lady. “ I must make up my mind before I 
begin.” 

Now while he was making up his mind Mrs. 
No-Tail sat in the other room, wondering what 
kept Mrs. Longtail such a long time away, 
getting the second cup of tea. 

“ Perhaps I had better go and see what’s keep- 
ing her,” Mrs. No-Tail thought. “ She may 
have burned herself on the hot stove, or teapot.” 
So she went toward the kitchen, and there she 
saw a dreadful sight, for there was that bad cat, 
holding poor Mrs. Longtail in his claws and 
opening his mouth to eat her. 

“Oh, let me go! Please let me go!” the 
mouse lady begged. 

“ No, I’ll not,” answered the cat, and once 
more he licked his whiskers with his red tongue. 

“ Oh, I must do something to that cat ! ” 
thought Mrs. No-Tail. “ I must make him let 
Mrs. Longtail go.” 


Mrs. No-Tail and Mrs. Longtail 121 


So she thought and thought, and finally the 
frog lady saw a sprinkling can hanging on a nail 
in the dining-room, where Mrs. Longtail kept it 
to water the flowers with. 

“ I think that will do,” said Mrs. No-Tail. So 
she very quietly and carefully took it off the 
nail, and then she went softly out of the front 
door, and around to the side of the house to the 
rain-water barrel, where she filled the watering 
can. Then she came back with it into the house. 

“ Now,” she thought, “ if I can only get up 
behind the cat and pour the water on him, he’ll 
think it’s raining, and as cats don’t like rain he 
may run away, and let Mrs. Longtail go.” 

So Mrs. No- Tail tip-toed out into the kitchen 
as quietly as she could, for she didn’t want the 
cat to see her. But the savage animal, who had 
made his tail as big as a skyrocket, was getting 
ready to eat Mrs. Longtail, and he was going to 
begin head first. So he didn’t notice Mrs. No- 
Tail. 

Up she went behind him, on her tippiest tip- 
toes, and she held the watering can above his 
head. Then she tilted it up, and suddenly out 
came the water — drip ! drip ! drip ! splash ! splash ! 

Upon the cat’s furry back it fell, and my, you 
should have seen how surprised that cat was! 

“ Why, it’s raining in the house,” he cried. 


122 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ The roof must leak. The water is coming in! 
Get a plumber! Get a plumber! ” 

Then he gave a big jump, and bumped his 
head on the mantelpiece, and this so startled him 
that he dropped Mrs. Longtail, and she scam- 
pered off down in a deep, dark hole and hid safely 
away. Then the cat saw Mrs. No- Tail pouring 
water from the can, and he knew he had been 
fooled. 

“ Oh, I’ll get you! ” he cried, and he jumped 
at her, but the frog lady threw the sprinkling can 
at the cat, and it went right over his head like a 
bonnet, and frightened him so that he jumped out 
of the window and ran away. And he didn’t 
come back for a week or more. So that’s how 
Mrs. No-Tail saved Mrs. Longtail. 

Now in case the baker man doesn’L take the 
front door bell away to put it on the rag doll’s 
carriage, I’ll tell you next about Bawly and Ara- 
bella .Chick. 


STORY XIX 


BAWLY AND ARABELLA CHICK. 

Bawly No-Tail, the frog boy, had been kept 
in after school one day for whispering. It was 
something he very seldom did in class, and I’m 
quite surprised that he did it this time. 

You see, he was very anxious to play in a ball 
game, and when teacher went to the blackboard 
to draw a picture of a cat, so the pupils could 
spell the word better, Bawly leaned over and 
asked Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, in a 
whisper : 

“Say, Sammie, will you have a game of ball 
after school? ” 

Sammie shook his head “ yes,” but he didn’t 
talk. And the lady mouse teacher heard Bawly 
whispering, and she made him stay in. But he 
was sorry for it, and promised not to do it again, 
and so he wasn’t kept in very late. 

Well, after a while the nice mouse teacher said 
Bawly could go, and soon he was on his way 
home, and he was wondering if he would meet 
Sammie or any of his friends, but he didn’t, as 
123 


124 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


they had hurried down to the vacant lots, where 
the circus tents were being put up for a show. 

“ Oh, my, how lonesome it is!” exclaimed 
Bawly. “ I w T ish I had some one to play with. I 
wonder where all the boys are? ” 

“ I don’t know where they are,” suddenly an- 
swered a voice, “ but if you like, Bawly, I will 
play house with you. I have my doll, and we 
can have lots of fun.” 

Bawly looked around, to make sure it wasn’t 
a wolf or a bad owl trying to fool him, and there 
he saw Arabella Chick, the little chicken girl, 
standing by a big pie-plant. It wasn’t a plant 
that pies grow on, you understand, but the kind 
of plant that mamma makes pies from. 

44 Don’t you want to play house? ” asked Ara- 
bella, kindly, of Bawly. 

44 No — no thank you, I — I guess not,” an- 
swered Bawly, bashfully standing first on one 
leg, and then on the other. 44 1 — er — that is — 
well, you know, only girls play house,” the frog 
boy said, for, though he liked Arabella very much, 
he was afraid that if he played house with her 
some of his friends might come along and laugh 
at him. 

44 Some boys play house,” answered the little 
chicken girl. 44 But no matter. Perhaps you 
would like to come to the store with me.” 


Bawly and Arabella Chick 


125 


“ What are you going to get? ” asked Bawly, 
curious like. 

“ Some kernels of corn for supper,” answered 
Arabella, “ and I also have a penny to spend 
for myself. I am going to get some watercress 
candy, and — ” 

“ Oh, I’ll gladly come to the store with you,” 
cried Bawly, real excited like. “ I’ll go right 
along. I don’t care very much about playing 
ball with the boys. I’d rather go with you.” 

“ I’ll give you some of my candy if you come,” 
went on Arabella, who didn’t like to go alone.” 

“ I thought — that is, I hoped you would,’* 
spoke Bawly, shyly-like. Well, the frog boy 
and the chicken girl went on to the store, and 
Arabella got the corn, and also a penny’s worth 
of nice candy flavored with watercress, which is 
almost as good as spearmint gum. 

The two friends were walking along toward 
home, each one taking a bite of candy now and 
then, and Bawly was carrying the basket of corn. 
He was taking a nice bite off the stick of candy 
that Arabella held out to him, and he was thinking 
how kind she was, when, all of a sudden the frog 
boy stumbled and fell, and before he knew it the 
basket of corn slipped from his paw, and into a 
pond of water it fell — ker-splash! 

“ Oh dear! ” cried Arabella. 


126 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


“ Oil dear! ” also cried Bawly. “ Now I have 
gone and done it; haven’t I?” 

“ But — but I guess you didn’t mean to,” spoke 
Arabella, kindly. 

“ No,” replied Bawly, “ I certainly did not. 
But perhaps I can get the com up for you. I’ll 
reach down and try.” 

So he stretched out on the bank of the pond, 
and reached his front leg down into the water as 
far as it would go, but he couldn’t touch the com, 
for it was scattered out of the basket, all over the 
floor, or bottom, of the pond. 

“ That will never do ! ” cried Bawly. “ I guess 
I’ll have to dive down for that corn.” 

“ Dive down! ” exclaimed Arabella. “ Oh, if 
you dive down under water you’ll get all wet. 
Wait, and perhaps the water will all run out of 
the pond and we can then get the corn.” 

“ Oh I don’t mind the wet,” replied the frog 
boy. “ My clothes are made purposely for that. 
I’m so sorry I spilled the corn.” So into the 
water Bawly popped, clothes and all, just as when 
you fall out of a boat, and down to the bottom he 
went. But when he tried to pick up the corn he 
had trouble. For the kernels were all wet and 
slippery and Bawly couldn’t very well hold his 
paw full of corn, and swim at the same time. So 
he had to let go of the corn, and up he popped. 


Bawly and Arabella Chick 


127 


“ Oh! ” cried Arabella, when she saw he didn’t 
have any corn. “ I’m so sorry! V/ hat shall we 
do? We need the corn for supper.” 

“ I’ll try again,” promised Bawly, and he did, 
again and again, but still he couldn’t get any of 
the corn up from under the water. And he felt 
badly, and so did Arabella, and even eating what 
they had left of the candy didn’t make them feel 
any better. 

“ I tell you what it is ! ” cried Bawly, after he 
had tried forty- ’leven times to dive down after the 
corn, “ what I need is something like an ash sieve. 
Then I could scoop up the corn and water, and 
the water would run out, and leave the con* 
there.” 

“ But you haven’t any sieve,” said Arabella, 
“ and so you can never get the corn, and we won’t 

have any supper, and Oh, dear! Boo-hoo! 

Hoo-boo! ” 

“ Oh, please don’t cry,” begged Bawly, who 
felt badly enough himself. “ Here, wait. I’ll see 
if I can’t drink all the water out of the pond, and 
that will leave the ground dry so we can get the 
corn.” 

Well, he tried, but, bless you, he couldn’t begin 
to drink all the water in the pond. And he 
didn’t know what to do, until, all of a sudden, he 
saw, coming along the road, Aunt Lettie, the nice 


123 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


old lady goat. And what do you think she had? 
Why, a coffee strainer, that she had bought at 
the five-and-ten-cent store. As soon as Bawly 
saw that strainer he asked Aunt Lettie if he could 
take it. 

She said he could, and pretty soon down he 
dived under the water again, and with the coffee 
strainer it was very easy to scoop up the corn from 
the bottom of the pond, and soon Bawly got it all 
back again, and the water hadn’t hurt it a bit, 
only making it more tender and juicy for cook- 
ing. 

And just as Bawly got up the last of the corn 
in the coffee strainer, down swooped a big owl, 
and he tried to grab Bawly and Arabella and the 
corn and sieve and Aunt Lettie, all at the same 
time. But the old lady goat drove him away 
with her sharp horns, and then Bawly and Ara- 
bella thanked her very kindly and went home, 
the frog boy carrying the com he had gotten up 
from the pond, and taking care not to spill it 
again. And so every one was happy but the owl. 

Now in case the fish man doesn’t paint the 
glass of the parlor windows sky-blue pink, so I 
can’t see Uncle Wiggily Longears when he 
rings the door bell, I’ll tell you next about Bully 
and Dottie Trot. 


* 



















STORY XX 


BULLY AND DOTTIE TROT 

One day Bully No- Tail, the frog boy, was hop- 
ping along through the woods, and he felt so very 
fine, and it was such a nice day, that, when he 
came to a place where some flowers grew up near 
an old stump, nodding their pretty heads in the 
wind, the frog boy sang a little song. 

“ I love to skip and jump and hop, 

I love to hear firecrackers pop, 

I love to play 
The whole long day, 

I love to spin my humming top.” 

That’s what Bully sang, and if there had been 
a second, or a third, or a forty-’leventh verse he 
would have sung that too, as he felt so good. 
Well, after he had sung the one verse he hopped 
on some more, and pretty soon he came to the 
place where the mouse lady lived, whose basket of 
chips Bully had once picked up, when she hurt 
129 


130 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


her foot on a thorn. I guess you remember about 
that story. 

“ Ah, how to you do, Bully? ” asked the mouse 
lady, as the frog boy hopped along. 

“ Thank you, I am very well,” he answered 
politely. “ I hope you are feeling pretty good.” 

“ Well,” she made answer, “ I might feel 
better. I have a little touch of cat-and-mouse- 
trap fever, but I think if I stay in my hole and 
take plenty of toasted cheese, I’ll be better. But 
here is a nice sugar cookie for you,” and with that 
the nice mouse lady went to the cupboard, got a 
cookie, and gave it to the frog boy. 

Bully ate it without getting a single crumb on 
the door, which was very good of him, and then, 
saving a piece of the cookie for his brother Bawly, 
he hopped on, after bidding the mouse lady 
good-by and hoping that she would soon be better. 

Along and along hopped Bully, and all of a 
sudden the big giant jumped out of the bushes — 
Oh, excuse me, if you please ! there is no giant in 
this story. The giant went back to the circus, 
but I’ll tell you a story about him as soon as I 
may. As Bully was hopping along, all of a 
sudden out from behind a bush there jumped a 
savage, ugly wolf, and he had gotten out of his 
circus cage again, and was looking around for 
something to eat. 


Bully and Dottie Trot 


131 


“ Ah, ha! At last I have found something! ” 
cried the wolf, as he made a spring for Bully, and 
he caught the frog boy under his paws and held 
him down to the earth, just like a cat catches a 
mouse. 

“ Oh, let me go! Please let me go! You are 
squeezing the breath out of me ! ” cried poor 
Bully. 

“ Indeed I will not let you go! ” replied the 
wolf, real unpleasant-like. 4 4 1 have been looking 
for something to eat all day and now that I’ve 
found it I’m not going to let you go. No, indeed, 
and some horseradish in a bottle besides.” 

44 Are you really going to eat me? ” asked 
Bully, sorrowfully. 

44 1 certainly am,” replied the wolf. 44 You 
just watch me. Oh, no, I forgot. You can’t see 
me eat you, but you can feel me, which is much 
the same thing.” 

Then the wolf sharpened his teeth on a sharpen- 
ing stone, and he got ready to eat up the frog 
boy. Now Bully didn’t want to be eaten, and I 
don’t blame him a bit ; do you ? He wanted to go 
play ball, and have a lot of fun with his friends, 
and he was thinking what a queer wo^d this is, 
where you can be happy and singing a song, and 
eating a sugar cookie one minute, and the next 


132 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


minute be caught by a wolf. But that’s the way 
it generally is. 

Then, as Bully thought of how good the sugar 
cookie was he asked the wolf : 

“ Will you let me go for a piece of cookie, 
Mr. Wolf? ” 

“ Let me see the cookie,” spoke the savage 
creature. 

So Bully reached in his pocket, and took out 
the piece of cookie that he was saving for Bawly. 
He knew Bawly would only be too glad to have 
the wolf take it, if he let his brother Bully go. 

But, would you ever believe it? That un- 
pleasant and most extraordinary wolf animal 
snatched the cookie from Bully’s paw, ate it up 
with one mouthful, and only smiled. 

“ Well, now, are you going to let me go? ” 
asked Bully. 

“ No,” said the wolf. “ That cookie only made 
me more hungry. I guess I’ll eat you now, and 
then go look for your brother and eat him, too.” 

“ Oh, will no one save me? ” cried Bully in 
despair, and just then he heard a rustling in the 
bushes. He looked up and there he saw Dottie 
Trot, the little pony girl. She waved her hoof 
at Bully, and then the frog boy knew she would 
save him if she could. So he thought of a plan, 
while Dottie, with her new red hair ribbon tied 


Bully and Dottie Trot 


133 


in a pink bow, hid in the bushes, where the wolf 
couldn’t see her, and waited. 

“ Well, if you are going to eat me, Mr. Wolf,” 
said Bully, most politely, after a while, “ will 
you grant me one favor before you do so? ” 

“ What is it? ” asked the wolf, still sharpening 
his teeth. 

“ Let me take one last hop before I die? ” 
asked Bully. 

“ Very well,” answered the wolf. 4 4 One hop 
and only one, remember.. And don’t think you 
can get away, for I can run faster than you can 
hop.” 

Bully knew that, but he was thinking of Dottie 
Trot. So the wolf took his paws off Bully, and 
the frog boy got ready to take a last big hop. 
He looked over through the bushes, and saw the 
pony girl, and then he gave a great, big, most 
tremendous and extraordinarily strenuous jump, 
and landed right on Dottie’s back! 

44 Here we go!” cried the pony girl. 44 Here is 
where I save Bully No-Tail! Good-by bad Mr. 
Wolf.” And away she trotted as fast as the 
wind. 

44 Here, come back with my supper! Come 
back with my supper ! ” cried the disappointed 
wolf, and off he ran after Dottie, who had Bully 
safely on her back. 


134 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Faster and faster ran the wolf, but faster and 
faster ran Dottie, and no wolf could ever catch 
her, no matter how fast he ran. And Dottie 
galloped and trotted and cantered, and went on 
and on, and on, and the wolf came after her, but 
he kept on being left farther and farther behind, 
and at last Dottie was out of the woods, and she 
and Bully were safe, for the wolf didn’t dare go 
any nearer, for fear the circus men would catch 
him. 

“ Oh, thank you so much, Dottie, for saving 
me,” said Bully. “ I’ll give you this other piece 
of cookie I 'was saving for Bawly. He won’t 
mind.” 

So he, gave it to Dottie, and she liked it very 
much indeed, and that wolf was so angry and dis- 
appointed about not having any supper that he 
bit his claw nails almost off, and went back 
into the woods, and growled, and growled, and 
growled all night, worse than a buzzing mosquito. 

But Bully and Dottie didn’t care' a bit and 
they went on home and they met Uncle Wiggily 
Longears, the rabbit gentleman, who bought 
them an ice cream soda flavored with carrots. 

Now in case my little bunny rabbit doesn’t 
bite a hole in the back steps so the milkman 
drops a bottle down it when he comes in the morn- 
ing, I’ll tell you in the following story about 
Grandpa Croaker and Brighteyes Pigg. 


STORY XXI 


GRANDPA AND BRIGHTEYES PI GG 

One nice warm day, right after he had eaten 
a breakfast of watercress oatmeal, with sweet- 
fiag-root- sugar and milk on it. Grandpa Croaker, 
the nice old gentleman frog, started out for a 
hop around the woods near the pond. And he 
took with him his cane with the crook on the 
handle, hanging it over his paw. 

“ Where are you going, Grandpa? ” asked 
Bully No-Tail, as he and his brother Bawly 
started for school. 

“ Oh, I hardly know,” said the old frog gentle- 
man in his hoarsest, deepest, thundering, croaking 
voice. “ Perhaps I may meet with a fairy or a 
big giant, or even the alligator bird.” 

“ The alligator isn’t a bird, Grandpa,” spoke 
Bawly. 

“ Oh no, to be sure,” agreed the old gentleman 
rabbit — I mean frog — “ no more it is. I was 
thinking of the Pelican. Well, anyhow I am 
going out for a walk, and if you didn’t have to go 
135 


136 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


to school you could come with me. But I’ll take 
you next time, and we may go to the Wild West 
show together.” 

“Oh fine!” cried Bully, as he hopped away 
with his school books under his front leg. 

“Oh fine and dandy!” exclaimed Bawly, as 
he looked in his spelling book to see how to spell 
“ cow.” 

Well, the frog boys hopped on to school, and 
Grandpa Croaker hopped off to the woods. He 
went on and on, and he was wondering what sort 
of an adventure he would have, when he heard a 
little noise up in the trees. He looked up through 
his glasses, and he saw Jennie Chipmunk there. 

She was a little late for school, but she was 
hurrying all she could. She called “ good morn- 
ing ” to Grandpa Croaker, and he tossed her up 
a sugar cookie that he happened to have in his 
pocket. Wasn’t he the nice old Grandpa, though? 
Well, I just guess he was! 

So he went on a little farther, and pretty soon 
he came to the place where Buddy and Bright- 
eyes Pigg lived. Only Buddy wasn’t at home, 
being at school. But Brighteyes, the little guinea 
pig girl, was there in the house, and she was 
suffering from the toothache, I’m sorry to say. 

Oh ! the poor little guinea pig girl was in great 
pain, and that’s why she couldn’t go to school. 


Grandpa and Brighteyes Pigg 137 


Her face was all tied up in a towel with a bag of 
hot salt on it, but even that didn’t seem to do any 
good. 

“ Oh, I’m so sorry for you, Brighteyes! ” ex- 
claimed Grandpa. “ Have you had Dr. Possum? 
Where is your mamma? ” 

Mamma has gone to the doctor’s now to 
get me something to stop the pain,” answered 
Brighteyes, 44 and to-morrow I am going to have 
the tooth pulled. We tried mustard and cloves 
and all things like that but nothing would stop 
the pain.” 

“ Perhaps if I tell you a little story it will 
make you forget it until mamma comes with the 
doctor’s medicine,” suggested Grandpa, and 
then and there he told Brighteyes a funny story 
about a little white rabbit that lived in a garden 
and had carrots to eat, and it ate so many that its 
white hair turned red and it looked too cute for 
anything, and then it went to the circus. 

Well, the story made Brighteyes forget the 
pain for a time, but the story couldn’t last 
forever, and soon the pain came back. Then 
Grandpa thought of something else. 

4 4 Why are all the ladders, and boards, and 
cans, and brushes piled outside your house? ” he 
asked Brighteyes, for he had noticed them as he 


came m. 


138 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Oh! we are having the house painted/’ said 
Brighteyes. 

“But where is the painter monkey?” asked 
Grandpa. “ I didn’t see him.” 

“ Oh ! he forgot to bring some red paint to 
make the blinds green or blue or some color like 
that,” answered the little guinea pig girl, “ so he 
went home to get it. He’ll be back soon.” 

“ Suppose you come outside and show me how 
he paints the house,” suggested Grandpa, think- 
ing perhaps that might make Brighteyes forget 
her pain. 

“ Of course I will, Grandpa Croaker,” said the 
little creature. “ I know just how he paints, for 
I watched him just before you came, and when 
I saw him put on the bright colors it made me for- 
get my toothache. Come, I’ll show you how he 
does it.” 

So Brighteyes took Grandpa’s paw, and led 
him outside where there were ladders and scaf- 
folds and pots of paint and lumps of putty, and 
spots of bright colors all over, and lots of brushes, 
little and big, and more putty and paint, and oh! 
I don’t know what all. 

“ Now this is how the painter monkey does it,” 
said Brighteyes. “ He takes a brush, and he dips 
it in the paint pot, and then he lets some of the 
loose paint fall off, and then he wiggles the brush 


Grandpa and Brighteyes Pigg 139 


up and down and sideways and across the 
middle on the boards of the house, and — it’s 
painted.” 

“ I see,” said Grandpa, and then, before he 
could stop her, Brighteyes took one of the painter 
monkey’s brushes, and dipped it into a pot of 
the pink paint. And she leaned over too far, and 
the first think you know she fell right into that 
pink paint pot, clothes, toothache and all ! What 
do you think of that? 

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” she cried, as soon as she 
could get her breath. “ This is awful — terrible ! ” 

“It certainly is!” said Grandpa Croaker. 
“ But never mind, Brighteyes. I’ll help you out. 
Don’t cry.” So he fished her out with his cane, 
and he took some rags, and some turpentine, 
and he cleaned off the pink paint as best he could, 
and then he took Brighteyes into the house, and 
the little guinea pig girl put on clean clothes, and 
then she looked as good as ever, except that there 
were some spots of pink paint on her nose. 

“ Never mind,” said Grandpa, as he gave her 
a sugar cookie, and just then Mrs. Pigg came 
back with the doctor’s medicine. 

“Why — why!” exclaimed Brighteyes as she 
kissed her mother, “ my 'toothache has all 
stopped! ” and, surely enough it had. I guess it 


140 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


got scared because of the pink paint and went 
away. 

Anyhow the tooth didn’t ache any more, and 
the next day Brighteyes went to the dentist’s and 
had it pulled. And the painter monkey didn’t 
mind about the paint that was spilled, and Mrs. 
Pigg didn’t mind about Brighteyes’s dress being 
spoiled, and they all thought Grandpa Croaker 
was as kind as he could be, and he didn’t mind be- 
cause his cane was colored pink, where he fished 
out the little guinea pig girl with it. So every- 
body was happy. 

Now in case our cat doesn’t fall into the red 
paint pot and then go to sleep on my typewriter 
paper and make it look blue. I’ll tell you next 
about Papa No-Tail and Nannie Goat. 


v 


STORY XXII 


PAPA NO- TAIL AND NANNIE GOAT 

One morning, bright and early, Papa No- 
Tail, the frog gentleman, started for the wall- 
paper factory where he worked at making pat- 
terns on the paper by dipping his feet in the dif- 
ferent colored inks and jumping up and down. 
And when he got there he saw, standing outside 
the factory, the man who made the engines go, 
and this man said: 

“ There is no work to-day for you, Mr. No- 
Tail” 

“ Ah ha ! What is the matter? ” asked Bully’s 
papa. 

“ That bad Pelican bird came again in the 
night and chewed up all the ink,” said the engine 
man. “ So you may have a vacation until we get 
some more ink.” 

■“ This is very unexpected — very,” spoke Papa 
No-Tail. “ But I will enjoy myself. I’ll go 
take a nice long hop, and perhaps I will see some- 
thing I can bring home to Bully and Bawly.” 

141 


142 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


So off he started, and he had no more idea what 
was going to happen to him than you have what 
you’re going to get for next Christmas. 

Papa No-Tail was hopping along, thinking 
what a fine day it was when, all of a sudden, he 
came to a place in the woods where there were 
some nice flowers. 

“Ha! I will take these home to my wife,” 
thought Mr. No- Tail, as he picked the pretty 
blossoms. Then he hopped on some more, and 
he came to a place where there were some nice 
round stones, as white as milk. 

“Ah! I will take these home for Bully and 
Bawly to play marbles with,” said the frog papa. 
Then he hopped on a little farther and he came 
to a place in the woods where was growing a nice 
big stick with a crooked handle. 

“ Ho ! I will take that home to Grandpa 
Croaker for a cane that he can use when he gets 
tired of carrying the one with the pink paint on 
it,” spoke Mr. No-Tail, and he pulled up the 
cane-stick, and went on with that and the flowers 
and the round white stones, as white as molasses 
— Oh, there I go again ! I mean milk, of course. 

Well, it was still quite early, and as he hopped 
along through the woods Papa No-Tail heard 
the school bell ring to call the boy and girl ani- 
mals to their classes. 


Papa No-Tail and Nannie Goat 143 


“ I hope Bully and Bawly are not late/’ 
thought their father. “ When one goes to school 
one must be on time, and always try to have one’s 
lessons.” Still he felt pretty sure that his two 
little boys were on time, for they were usually 
very good. 

On hopped Mr. No-Tail, wishing he could see 
the bad Pelican bird, and make him give up the 
wall-paper-printing ink, when all of a sudden, as 
quickly as you can tie your shoe lace, or your 
hair ribbon, Papa No-Tail heard a great crash- 
ing in the bushes, and then he heard a growling 
and then presto-changeo ! out popped Nannie 
Goat, and after her came running a black, savage 
hear! Oh, he was a most unpleasant fellow, that 
bear was, with a long, red tongue, and long, sharp, 
white teeth, and long claws, bigger than a cat’s 
claws, and he had shaggy fur like an automobile 
coat. 

“ Oh! Oh! Oh! Stop! Stop! Stop! Don’t 
catch me! Don’t catch me! Don’t catch me!” 
cried Nannie, the goat girl, running on and 
crashing through the bushes. But the bear never 
minded. On he came, right after Nannie, for he 
wanted to catch and eat her. You see he used 
to be in a cage in a big animal park, hut he got 
loose and he was now very hungry, for no one 
had fed him in some time. 


144 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Well, Papa No-Tail was so surprised that, for 
a moment, he didn’t know what to do. He just 
sat still under a big cabbage leaf, and looked at 
the bear chasing after Nannie. 

“Oh, will no one save me?” cried the poor 
little goat girl. “ Will no one save me from this 
savage hear? ” 

“No; no one will save you,” answered the 
shaggy creature, as he cleaned his white teeth 
with his red tongue for a brush. “ I am going to 
eat you up.” 

“No, you are not!” cried Papa No-Tail, 
boldly. 

“ Ha! Who says I am not going to eat her? ” 
asked the bear, surly-like. 

“ I do! ” went on Papa No-Tail, hopping a bit 
nearer. “ You shall never eat. her as long as I 
am alive! ” 

“ And who are you, if I may be so bold as to 
ask,” went on the bear, stopping so he could 
laugh. 

“ I am the brave Mr. No-Tail, who works in 
the wall-paper factory, but I can’t work to-day 
as the bad Pelican bird took the ink,” replied 
Bully’s and Bawly’s papa. 

“Oh, fiddlesticks!” cried the bear, real im- 
polite-like. “ Now, just for that I will eat you 
both! ” He made a rush for Nannie, but with a 


Papa No-Tail and Nannie Goat* 145 


scream she gave a big jump, and then something 
terrible happened. For she jumped right into a 
sand bank, which she didn’t notice, and there she 
stuck fast by her horns, which jabbed right into 
the hard sand and dirt. There she was held fast, 
and the bear, seeing her, called out : 

“ Now I can get you without any trouble. 
You can’t get away from me, so I’ll just eat this 
frog gentleman first.” 

Oh, but that bear was savage, and hungry, 
and several other kinds of unpleasant things. 
He made a big jmnp for the frog, but what do 
you think Bully’s papa did? Why he took the 
bunch of flowers, and he tickled that bear so 
tickily-ickly under the chin, that the bear first 
sneezed, and then he laughed and as Papa No- 
Tail kept oh tickling him, that bear just had to 
sit down and laugh and sneeze at the same time, 
and he couldn’t chase even a snail. 

“ Now for the next act! ” bravely cried Mr. 
No-Tail, and with that he took the stick he in- 
tended for Grandpa Croaker’s cane, and put it 
under the bear’s legs, and he twisted the stick, 
Papa No-Tail did, and the first thing that bear 
knew he had been tripped up and turned over 
just like a pancake, and he fell on his nose and 
bumped it real hard. 

Then, before he could get up, Papa No- t Tail 


146 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


pelted him with the round stones as white as milk, 
and the bear thought it was snowing and hailing, 
and he was as frightened as anything, and as soon 
as he could get up, away he ran through the 
woods, crying big, salty bear tears. 

“ Oh, I’m so glad you drove that bear away! 
You are very brave, Mr. No-Tail,” said Nannie 
Goat. “ But how am I to get loose in time to 
get to school without being late? ” For she was 
still fast by her horns in the sand bank. 

“ Never fear, leave it to me,” said Papa No- 
Tail. So Nannie never feared, and Papa No- 
Tail tried to pull her horns out of the sand bank, 
but he couldn’t, because the ground was too hard. 
So what did he do but go to the pond, and get 
some water in his hat, and he threw the water on 
the sand, and made it soft, like mud pies, and 
then Nannie could pull out her own horns. 

After thanking Mr. No-Tail she ran on to 
school, and got there just as the last hell rang, 
and wasn’t late. And the teacher and all the 
pupils were very much surprised when Nannie 
told them what had happened. Bully and 
Bawly were afraid the bear might come back and 
hurt their papa, but nothing like that happened 
I’m glad to say. 

Now in case the tea kettle doesn’t sing a funny 


Papa No-Tail and Nannie Goat 147 


song and waken the white rabbit with the pink 
eyes that’s in a cage out in our yard. I’ll tell you 
to-morrow night about Mamma No- Tail and 
Nellie Chip- Chip. 


STORY XXIII 


MRS. NO-TAIL AND NELLIE CHIP- CHIP 

Nellie Chip-Chip, the little sparrow girl, 
flew along over the trees after school was out, 
with a box of chocolate under her wing. And 
under her other wing was a purse, with some 
money in it that rattled like sleigh bells. 

“ What are you going to do with that choco- 
late? ” asked Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, as he 
and his brother, who were hopping to a ball 
game, happened to see Nellie. 

“ Oh, I guess she’s going to eat it,” said 
Bawly. “ If you want us to help you, we will, 
won’t we, Bully? ” he added. 

“ Sure,” said Bully, hungry like. 

“ Oh, indeed, that’s very kind of you boys,” 
replied Nellie, politely, “ but you see I’m not 
eating this chocolate. I am selling it for our 
school. We want to get some nice pictures to 
put in the rooms, and so I’m trying to help get 
the money to buy them by selling cakes of choco- 
late.” 


148 


Mrs. No- Tail and Nellie Chip-, Chip 149 


“Ha! That’s a good idea,” said Bully. 
“ Say, Nellie, if you go to our house maybe our 
mamma will buy some chocolate.” 

“I’ll fly right over there,” declared the little 
sparrow girl, “ for I want very much to sell my 
chocolate, and, so far, very few persons have 
bought any of me.” 

“ I guess our mamma will,” said Bawly, and, 
then when Nellie had flown on with her choco- 
late, Bawly winked both his eyes and spoke 
thusly: “ Say, Bully, if mamma buys the choco- 
late from Nellie I guess she’ll give us some.” 

“ I hope so,” replied his brother, and then they 
went on to the ball game and had a good time. 
Well, as I was telling you, Nellie flew over to 
Mrs. No-Tail’s house, and knocked at the door 
with her little bill. 

“ Don’t you want to buy some chocolate so I 
can make money to get pictures for our school? ” 
the sparrow girl politely asked. 

“Indeed I do,” replied Mrs. No-Tail. “I 
just need some chocolate for a cake I’m baking. 
And if you would like to come in, and help me 
make the cake, and put the chocolate on, I’ll give 
you some, and you can take a piece home to 
Dickie.” 

“ Indeed, I’ll be very glad to help,” said 
Nellie, so she went in the house, and Mrs. No- 


150 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Tail paid her for some of the chocolate, and then 
Nellie took off her hat, and put on an apron, and 
she helped make the cake. 

Oh, it was a most delicious one! with about 
forty- ’leven layers, and chocolate between each 
one, and then on top! Oh, it just makes me 
hungry even to typewrite about it! Why the 
chocolate on top of that cake was as thick as a 
board, and then on top of the chocolate was 
sprinkled cocoanut until you would have thought 
there had been a snow storm! Talk about a 
delicious cake! Oh, dear me! Well, I just don’t 
dare write any more about it, for it makes me so 
impatient. 

“ Now,” said Mrs. No-Tail, after the baking 
was over, “ we’ll just set the cake on the table by 
the open window to cool, Nellie, and we’ll wash 
up the dishes.” 

So they were working away, talking of dif- 
ferent things, and Nellie was a great help to Mrs. 
No-Tail. Every once in a while, however, Nellie 
would look over to the cake, because it was so nice 
she just couldn’t keep iier eyes away from it. 
She was just wishing it was time for her to have 
some to take home, but it wasn’t, quite yet. 

Well, all of a sudden, when Nellie looked over 
for about the twenty-two-thirteenth time, she 
saw that all the chocolate was gone from the 


Mrs. No-Tail and Nellie Chip-Chip 151 


top of the cake. All the chocolate and the cocoa- 
nut was missing. 

“ Oh! Oh! ” cried the little sparrow girl. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Mrs. No-Tail 
quickly. 

“Look!” exclaimed Nellie, pointing to the 
cake. 

“Well, of all things!” cried Mrs. No-Tail. 
“ That chocolate must have disappeared. It 
must have gone up like a balloon. I will have 
to buy some more of you, and put that on.” 
Then she went over and looked at the cake, and 
she wondered at the queer scratches in the top, 
just as if a cat had clawed off the chocolate. 
But there were no cats around. 

So Mrs. No-Tail and Nellie put more choco- 
late and cocoanut on the cake, and they went on 
washing up the dishes, and pretty soon, not so 
very long, in a little while Nellie looked at the 
cake again. And, would you believe me, the 
chocolate was all off once more. 

“ This is very strange,” said Mrs. No-Tail. 
“ That must he queer chocolate to disappear that 
way. Perhaps a fairy is taking it.” 

“ Maybe Bully and Bawly are doing it for a 
joke,” said Nellie. So she and Mrs. No-Tail 
looked from the window but they could see no 
one, not even a fairy, and, anyhow, Mrs. No-Tail 


152 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


knew the boys wouldn’t be so impolite as to do 
such a thing. 

“ It is very strange,” said the frog boys’ 
mamma. “ But we will put the chocolate and 
cocoanut on once more, and then we’ll watch to 
see who takes it.” 

So they did, making the cake even better than 
before. Oh, with such thick chocolate and 
cocoanut on ! and then they hid down behind the 
stove, and watched the window. 

Pretty soon a big, shaggy paw, with long, 
sharp claws on it, was put in the open window, 
and the paw went right on top of the cake, and 
scraped off some of the chocolate and cocoanut. 

“Ah! Yum-yum! That is most delicious!” 
exclaimed a grumbling, rumbling voice, and the 
paw, all covered with the cake chocolate, just as 
a lollypop stick is covered with candy, went out 
of the window, and the paw was all cleaned off 
somehow, when it came back again. More choc- 
olate was then scraped off the cake by those 
sharp claws. 

“ Oh, ho! This is simply scrumptious! ” went 
on the voice, as the paw was pulled back. Then 
a third time it came, and scraped off what was 
left of the chocolate and cocoanut. 

“ Oh, how perfectly delightful and proper this 


Mrs. No-Tail and Nellie Chip-Chip 153 


sweet stuff is! ” cried the voice. “ I wish there 
was more! ” 

Then a great, big, shaggy, ugly bear, the same 
one that once chased Nannie Goat, stuck his head 
in the window. 

“ Oh, did you scrape the chocolate off my 
cake? ” asked Mrs. No-Tail. 

“ I did,” the bear said, 44 have you any more? ” 

44 No, indeed,” she answered. 44 But you are a 
bold, bad creature, and if you don’t get away 
from here I’ll have you arrested.” 

44 1 am not a bit afraid,” answered the bear im- 
politely, 44 and as there is no more chocolate I’ll 
take the cake.” 

Well, he was just reaching for it with his sharp 
clawy-paws, and Mrs. No-Tail and Nellie were 
very much frightened, fearing the beast would 
get them. But just then a man’s voice cried out: 

44 Ah, ha! You bad animal! So I’ve caught 
you, have I? And you are up to your tricks as 
usual! Now you come with me!” And who 
should appear but the man from the animal park 
where the bear once lived. And he had a whip 
and a rope, and he tied the rope around the 
bear’s neck and whipped him for being so bad, 
and took him back to his cage. And Mrs. No- 
Tail and Nellie were very glad. And I guess 
you’d be also. Eh? 


154 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


There was some chocolate left, and some cocoa- 
nut, and soon the cake was even better than be- 
fore, and Nellie had sold all her chocolate to Mrs. 
No-Tail, and she could buy lots of pictures for 
the school. And Nellie took home a big piece of 
the cake for Dickie, her brother, and of course 
some for herself. So it all came out right after 
all, and that bear was very sorry for what he 
did. 

Now, in the story after this one, if the fish 
we’re going to have for supper doesnlt swim 
away with my new soft hat and get it all wet, 
I’ll tell you about Bully No-Tail and Alice Wib- 
blewobble. 







































































- 

• 












































. » 










































STORY XXIV 


BULLY AND ALICE WIBBLEWOBBLE 

“ Bully,” said the frog boy’s mamma to him 
one Saturday morning, when there wasn’t any 
school, “ I wish you would go on an errand for 
me.” 

“ Of course I will, mother,” he said. “ Do you 
want me to go to the store for some lemons, or 
some sugar? ” 

“ Neither one, Bully. I wish you would go to 
Mrs. Wibblewobble’s house and tell the nice 
duck lady I can’t come over to-day to help her 
sew carpet rags, and piece-out the bedquilt. I 
have to put aw^ay the winter flannels so the moths 
won’t get in them, and then, too, it is so rainy 
and foggy that we couldn’t see to sew carpet 
rags very well. Tell her I’ll be over the first 
pleasant day.” 

“ Very well,” answered Bully, “ and may I 
stay a while and play with Jimmie Wibble- 
wobble? ” 

“ You may,” said his mother, and off Bully 
155 


156 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


hopped all alone, for his brother Bawly had gone 
fishing. 

It was a very unpleasant day for any one ex- 
cept ducks or frogs. For sometimes it rained, 
and when it wasn’t rainy it was misty, and 
moisty, and foggy. And it was wet all over. 
The w T ater dripped down off the trees and bushes, 
and even the ponds and little brooks were wetter 
than usual, for the rain rained into them, and 
splished and splashed. 

But Bully didn’t mind, not in the least. Away 
he hopped in his rubber suit, that water couldn’t 
hurt, and he felt very fine. Soon he was at Mrs. 
Wibblewobble’s house, and he delivered the mes- 
sage his mother had given him. 

“ And now I’ll go play with Jimmie,” said 
Bully. “ Where is he, and where are Lulu and 
Alice, Mrs. Wibblewobble? ” 

“ Oh! the girls went over to see Grandfather 
Goosey Gander,” replied, their mamma. “ As 
for Jimmie, you’ll find him out somewhere on 
the pond. But be careful you don’t get lost, for 
the fog is very thick co-day.” 

“ I should think it was,” replied Bully as he 
hopped away, “ it’s almost as thick as molasses.” 
Well, pretty soon he came to the edge of the 
pond, and in he plumped, and began swimming 
about. 


Bully and Alice Wibblewobble 157 


“Jimmie! Hey, Jimmie! Where are you, 
Jimmie? ” he called. 

“ Over here, making a water wheel,” answered 
the boy duck, and though the frog chap couldn’t 
see him, he could tell, by Jimmie’s voice, where 
he was, and soon he had hopped to the right 
place. 

Well, Bully and Jimmie had a fine time, mak- 
ing the water wheel, that went splash-splash 
around in the water. And when they became 
tired of playing that, they played water-tag with 
the water-spiders, and then they played hop-skip- 
and-jump, at which game Bully was very good. 

“ Now let’s go up to the house,” proposed 
Jimmie, “ and I’m sure mother will give us some 
corn-meal sandwiches with jam and bread and 
butter on.” 

Off they went through the fog, and it was now 
so thick that they couldn’t see their way, and by 
mistake they went to the barn instead of the 
house. I don’t know what they would have done, 
only just then along came Old Percival, the 
circus dog, and he could smell his way through 
the misty fog up to the house. Maybe he could 
smell the sandwiches, with jam and bread and 
butter on. I don’t know, but anyhow Mrs. Wib- 
blewobble gave him one when she made some for 
Bully and Jimmie. 


158 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Well, now I’m coming to the Alice part of the 
story. As Jimmie and Bully were eating their 
sandwiches on the back porch, not minding the 
rain in the least, all at once Lulu Wibblewobble 
came waddling along. As soon as she got to the 
steps she called out: 

44 Oh, is Alice home yet? ” 

“ Alice home?” exclaimed Mrs. Wibble- 
wobble. 4 4 Why, didn’t she come from Grand- 
father Goosey Gander’s house with you? ” 

44 No, she started on ahead, some time ago,” 
said Lulu. 44 She said she wanted to put on her 
new hair ribbon for dinner. She ought to have 
been here some time ago. Are you sure she isn’t 
here? ” 

44 No, she isn’t,” answered Jimmie. 44 She 
must be lost in the fog! ” 

44 Oh, dear ! That’s exactly what has hap- 
pened!” cried the mamma duck. 44 Oh, this 
dreadful fog! What shall I do? ” 

44 Don’t worry, Mrs. Wibblewobble,” spoke 
Bully. 44 Jimmie and I will go and hunt her. 
We can find her in the fog.” 

44 Oh, you may get lost yourselves ! ” said the 
duck lady. 44 It’s bad enough as it is, but that 
would be dreadful. Oh, what shall I do? ” 

44 I’ll tell you,” said Lulu. 44 We’ll all hunt 
for her, and so that we will not become lost in the 


Bully and Alice Wibblewobble 159 


fog, we’ll tie several strings to our house, and 
then each of us will keep hold of one string, and 
when we go off in the fog we can follow the string 
back again, and we won’t get lost.” 

“ That’s a good idea! ” cried Bully, and they 
all thought it was. So they each tied a long 
string to the front porch rail, and, keeping hold 
of the other end, started off in the fog, Mrs. Wib- 
blewobble, Jimmie, Bully and Lulu. Off into 
the fog they went, and the white mist was now 
thicker than ever ; thicker than molasses, I guess. 

Mrs. Nibble wobble looked one way, and 
Jimmie another, and Lulu another, and Bully 
still another. And for a long time neither one of 
them could find Alice. 

“ I’m going to call out loud, and perhaps she’ll 
hear me,” said Bully. “ She probably wandered 
off on the wrong path coming from Grandfather 
Goosey Gander’s house.” So he cried as loudly 
as he could: “ Alice! Alice! Where are you, 
Alice? ” 

“Oh, here I am!” the duck girl suddenly 
cried, though Bully couldn’t see her on account 
of the fog. “ Oh, I’m so glad you came to find 
me, for I’ve been lost a long time.” 

“Walk right over this way!” called Bully, 
“ and I’ll take you home by the string. Come 
over here ! ” 


160 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Yes, come over here! ” called another voice, 
and Bully looked and what should he see but a 
savage alligator, hiding in the fog, with his 
mouth wide open. The alligator hoped Alice 
would, by mistake, walk right into his mouth so 
he could eat her. And he kept calling right after 
Bully, and poor Alice got so confused with the 
two of them shouting that she didn’t know what 
to do. 

Bully was afraid the alligator would get her, 
so what did he do but take up a big stone, and, 
hiding in the fog, he threw the rock into the alli- 
gator’s mouth. 

“There! Chew on that!” called Bully, and 
the alligator was so angry that he crawled right 
away, taking his scaly, double- jointed tail with 
him. 

Then Bully called again, and this time Alice 
found where he was in the fog, and she waddled 
up to him, and she wasn’t lost any more, and 
Bully took her home by following the string. 
Then the fog blew away and they were all happy, 
and had some more jam sandwiches. 

Now, in case it doesn’t rain and wet my new 
umbrella so that the pussy cat can go to school, 
and learn how to make a mouse trap, I’ll tell you 
next about Bawly No-Tail and Lulu Wibble- 
wobble. 


STORY XXV 


BAWLY AND LULU WIBBLEWOBBLE 

Bawly No-Tail, the frog boy, was hopping 
along one day whistling a little tune about a yel- 
low-spotted doggie, who found a juicy bone, and 
sold it to a ragman for a penny ice cream cone. 
After the little frog boy had finished his song 
he hopped into a pond of water and swam about, 
standing on his head and wiggling his toes in the 
air, just as when the boys go in bathing. 

Well, would you ever believe it? When 
Bawly bounced up out of the water to catch his 
breath, which nearly ran away from him down to 
the five-and-ten-cent-store — when Bawly bounced 
up, I say, who should he see but Lulu Wibble- 
wobble, the duck girl, swimming around on the 
pond. 

“ Hello, Lulu! ” called Bawly. 

"'Hello!” answered Lulu. * c Come on, 
Bawly, let’s see who can throw a stone the farth- 
est; you or I.” 

“ Oh, pooh! ” cried the frog boy. “ I can, of 
course. You’re only a girl.” 

161 


162 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Well, would you ever believe it? When 
Bawly and Lulu were out on the shore of the 
pond and had thrown their stones, Lulu’s went 
ever so much farther than did Bawly’s. Oh ! she 
was a good thrower, Lulu was ! 

“Well, anyhow, I can beat you jumping!” 
cried Bawly. “ Now, let’s try that game.” 

So they tried that, and, of course, Bawly won, 
being a very good jumper. He jumped over two 
stones, three sticks, a little black ant and also a 
big one, a hump of dirt, two flies and a grain of 
sand. And, as for Lulu, she only jumped over a 
brown leaf, a bit of straw, part of a stone and a 
little fuzzy bug. 

“ Now we’re even,” said Bawly, who felt good- 
natured again. “ Let’s go for a walk in the 
woods and we’ll get some wild flowers and maybe 
something will happen. Who knows ? ” 

“Who knows?” agreed Lulu. So off they 
started together, talking about the weather and 
ice cream cones and Fourth of July and all 
things like that. For it was Saturday, you see, 
and there was no school. 

Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very 
long, as Bawly was hopping, and Lulu was wob- 
bling along, they heard a noise in the bushes. 
Now, of course, when you’re in the woods there is 
always likely to be a noise in the bushes. Some- 


Bawly and Lulu Wibblewobble 163 


times it’s made b}^ a fairy, and sometimes by a 
giant and sometimes by a squirrel or a rabbit, or 
a doggie, or a kittle, and sometimes only by the 
wind blowing in the treetops. And you can 
never tell what makes the noise until you look. 
So Bawly and Lulu looked to see what made the 
noise in the bushes. 

“ Maybe it’s a giant! ” exclaimed Lulu. 

“ Maybe it’s a fairy,” said Bawly, and they 
looked and looked and pretty soon, in a jiffy, out 
came a man — just a plain, ordinary man. 

“ Oh, me! ” cried Bawly. 

“ Oh, my! ” exclaimed Lulu. 

Then they both started to run away, for they 
were afraid they might be hurt. But the man 
saw them going off, and he called after them. 

“ Oh, pray don’t be frightened, little ones. I 
wouldn’t hurt you for the world. I was just 
looking for a frog and a duck, and here you are.” 

“Are — are you going to eat us?” asked 
Bawly, blinking his eyes. 

“ No, indeed,” replied the man, kindly. 

“ Are you going to carry us away in a bag? ” 
asked Lulu, wiggling her feet. 

“Oh, never, never, never!” cried the man, 
quickly. “ I will put you in my pockets if you 
will let me, and I will do a funny trick with you.” 


164 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ A trick? ” asked Bawly, for he was very fond 
of them. “ What kind? ” 

“ A good trick,” replied the man. “ You see, 
I am a magician in a show — that is I do all sorts 
of funny tricks, such as making a rabbit come out 
of a hat, or shutting a pig up in a box and chang- 
ing it to a bird, and making a boy or girl dis- 
appear. 

“ I also do tricks with ducks and frogs, but the 
other day the pet frog and duck which I have 
got sick, and I can’t do any more tricks with 
them until they are better. But if you would 
come with me, I could do some tricks with you in 
the show, and I wouldn’t hurt you a bit, and I’d 
give you each ten cents, and you could have a 
nice time. Will you come with me? I took a 
walk out in the woods specially to-day, hoping I 
could find a new duck or frog to use in my 
tricks.” 

Well, Lulu and Bawly thought about it, and 
as the man looked very kind they decided to go 
with him. So he put Lulu in one of his big 
pockets and Bawly in the other, and off he 
started through the woods. 

And pretty soon he came to the place where he 
did the tricks. It was a big building, and there 
was a whole crowd of people there waiting for 


Bawly and Lulu Wibble wobble 165 


tbe magician — men and women and boys and 
girls. 

“ Now, don’t be afraid, Bawly and Lulu,” said 
the man kindly, for he could talk duck and frog 
language. “No one will hurt you.” 

So he put Bawly and Lulu down on a soft 
table, where the people couldn’t see them, and 
then that man did the most surprising and extra- 
ordinary tricks. He made fire come out of a pail 
of water, and he opened a box, and there was 
nothing in it, and he opened it again, and there 
was a rabbit in it. Then he took a man’s hat, 
and he said : 

“ Now, there is nothing in his hat but in a 
moment I am going to make a little frog come 
in it. Watch me closely.” 

Well, of course, the people hardly believed 
him, but what do you think that man did? Why, 
he took the hat and turned around, and when no- 
body was looking he slipped Bawly off from the 
table and put him inside it — inside the hat, I 
mean, and then the magician said: 

“ Presto-changeo ! Froggie! Froggie! Come 
into the hat ! ” 

Then he put his hand in, and lifted out Bawly, 
who made a polite little bow, and the frog wasn’t 
a bit afraid. And, my! How those people did 
clap their hands and stamp their feet! 


166 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Now if some lady will lend me her handbag, 
I’ll make a duck come in it,” said the magician. 
So a lady in the audience gave him her handbag, 
and after the magician had taken out ten 
handkerchiefs, and a purse with no money in it, 
and a looking-glass, and some feathers all done 
up in a puff ball, and some peppermint candies, 
and two postage stamps and some chewing gum 
and five keys, why he went back on the stage. 
And as quick as a wink, when no one was looking, 
with his back to the people, he slipped Lulu Wib- 
blewobble into the empty handbag, and she kept 
very quiet for she didn’t want to spoil the trick. 

And then the magician turned to the audience, 
and he said : 

“Behold! Behold!” and he lifted out the 
duck girl. Oh my! how those people did clap; 
and the lady that owned the handbag was as 
surprised as anything. Then the man did lots 
more tricks, and he called a boy, and told him to 
take Lulu and Bawly back home, after he had 
given them each ten cents. For his regular trick 
duck and frog were all well again, and he could 
do magic with them. So that’s how Lulu and 
Bawly were in a magical show, and they told all 
their friends about it and everyone was so sur- 
prised that they said: “Oh! Oh! Oh! ’’more 
than forty- ’leven times. 


Bawly and Lulu Wibblewobble 167 


And next, if our new kitten, whose name is 
Peter, doesn’t fall into a basket of soap bubbles 
and wet his tail so he can’t go to the moving pic- 
ture show, I’ll tell you about Bully No-Tail and 
Kittie Kat. 


STORY XXYI 


BULLY NO-TAIL AND KITTIE KAT 

“ Bully, what are you doing? ” the frog boy’s 
mother called to him one day, as she heard him 
making a funny noise. 

“ Oh, mother, I am just counting to see how 
many marbles I have,” he answered. 

“ Well, would you mind going to the store 
for me? ” asked Mrs. No-Tail. “ I was going 
to make a cake, but I find I have no cocoanut to 
put on top.” 

“ Oh, indeed, I’ll go for you, mother, right 
away!” cried Bully, quickly, for he was very 
fond of cocoanut cake. But I guess he would 
have gone to the store anyhow, even if his 
mamma had only wanted vinegar, or lemons, or a 
yeast cake. 

So off he started, whistling a little tune about 
a fuzzy- wuzzy pussy cat, who drank a lot of milk 
and had a crinkly Sunday dress, made out of 
yellow silk. 

“ Well, I feel better after that!” exclaimed 
168 


Bully No-Tail and Kittie Kat 


169 


Bully, as he hopped along, sailing high in the 
air, above the clouds. Oh, there I go again! I 
was thinking of Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow. 
No, Bully hopped along on the ground, and 
pretty soon he came to the store and bought the 
cocoanut for the cake. 

He was hopping home, hoping his mamma 
would give him and his brother Bawly some of 
the cake when it was baked, when, just as he 
came near a pond of water he heard some one 
crying. Oh, such a sad, pitiful cry as it was, and 
at first Bully thought it might be some bad wolf, 
or fox, or owl, crying because it hadn’t any din- 
ner, and didn’t see anything to catch to eat for 
supper. 

“ I must look out that they don’t catch me,” 
thought Bully, and he took tight hold of the 
cocoanut, and peeked through the hushes. And 
what did he see but poor Kittie Kat — you re- 
member her, I dare say ; she was a sister to J oie 
and Tommie Kat — there was Kittie Kat, crying 
as if her heart would break, and right in front of 
her was a savage fox, wiggling his bushy tail to 
and fro, and snapping his cruel jaws and sharp 
teeth. 

“ Now I’ve caught you! ” cried the fox. “ I’ve 
been waiting a good while, but I have you now.” 

“ Yes, I — I guess you have,” said poor Kittie, 


170 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


for the fox had hold of the handle of a little 
basket that Kittie was carrying, and wouldn’t let 
go. In the basket was a nice cornmeal pie that 
Kittie was taking to Grandfather Goosey 
Gander, when the fox caught her. “ Will you 
please let me go? ” begged poor Kittie Kat. 

“ No,” replied the bad fox. “ I’m going to eat 
you up — all up! ” 

Well, Kittie cried harder than ever at that, 
but she still kept hold of the basket with the 
cornmeal pie in it, and the fox also had hold of 
it. And Bully was hiding behind the bushes 
where neither of them could see him — hiding and 
waiting. 

“ Oh, I must save Kittie from that fox! ” he 
thought. “ How can I do it? ” 

So Bully thought and thought, and thought of 
a plan. Then he leaned forward and whispered 
in Kittie’s ear, so low that the fox couldn’t hear 
him: 

“ Let go of the basket, Kittie,” he told her, 
“ and then give a big jump and run up a tree.” 

Well, Kittie was quite surprised to hear Bully 
whispering out of the bushes to her, for she 
didn’t know that he was around, but she did as 
he told her to. She suddenly let go of the basket 
handle, and the fox was so surprised that he 
nearly fell over sideways. And before he could 


Bully No-Tail and Kittie Kat 


171 


straighten himself up Kittie Kat jumped back, 
and up a tree she scrambled before you could 
shake a stick at her, even if you wanted to. You 
see, she never thought of going up a tree until 
Bully told her to. 

“ Here! You come hack! ” cried the fox, real 
surprised like. 

“ Tell him you are not going to,” whispered 
Bully, and that’s what Kittie called to the fox 
from up in the tree, for, you see, he couldn’t 
climb up to her, and he still had hold of her basket. 

“If j^ou don’t come down I’ll throw this 
basket of yours in the water ! ” threatened the 
bad fox, gnashing his teeth. 

“Oh, I don’t want him to do that!” said 
Kittie. 

“ Never mind, perhaps he won’t,” suggested 
Bully. “ Wait and see.” 

“ Are you coming down and let me eat you? ” 
asked the fox of the little kitten girl, for the sav- 
age animal did not yet know that Bully was hid- 
ing there. “ Are you coming down, I ask you? ” 

“ No, indeed! ” exclaimed Kittie. 

“ Then here goes the basket ! ” cried the fox, 
and, just to be mean he threw the nice basket, 
containing the cornmeal pudding — I mean pie — 
into the pond of water. 

“Oh! Oh! Oh dear!” cried Kittie Kat. 


172 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ What will Grandfather Goosey Gander do 
now? ” 

“ Never mind. I’ll get it for you, as I don’t 
mind water in the least,” spoke Bully, bravely. 

So he started to hop out, to jump into the 
water to save the kittie girl’s basket, for he knew 
the fox wouldn’t dare go in the pond after him, 
as the fox doesn’t like to wet his feet and catch 
cold. 

Well, Bully was just about to hop into the 
pond, when he happened to think of the package 
of cocoanut his mamma had sent him to get at the 
store. 

“ Oh, dear! I never can get that wet in the 
water or it will be spoiled ! ” he thought. “ What 
can I do? If I leave it on the shore here while I 
go after Kittie’s basket the fox will eat it, and 
we’ll have no cake. I guess I’m in trouble, all 
right, for I must get the basket.” 

Well, he didn’t know what to do, and the fox 
was just sneaking up to eat him when Kittie Kat 
cried out: 

“ Oh, be careful, Bully. Jump! Jump into 
the water so the fox can’t get you! ” 

“ What about the cocoanut? ” asked Bully. 

“ Here, give it to me, and I’ll hold it,” said 
Kittie, and she reached down with her sharp 
claws, and hooked them into the pink string 


Bully No- Tail and Kittie Kat 


173 


around the package of cocoanut and pulled it up 
on the tree branch where she sat, and then the fox 
couldn’t get it. And oh! how disappointed he 
was and how he did gnash his teeth. 

And then, before he could grab Bully and 
eat him up, the frog boy leaped into the pond 
and swam out and got Kittie’s basket and the 
cornmeal pie before it sank. And then Bully 
swam to a floating log, and crawled out on it 
with the basket, which wasn’t harmed in the least, 
nor was the pie, either. 

And the fox sat upon the shore of the pond, 
and first he looked at Bully, and wished he could 
eat him, and then he looked at Kittie, and he 
wished he could eat her, and then he looked at the 
cocoanut, which Kittie held in her claws, and 
he couldn’t eat that, and he couldn’t eat the corn- 
meal pie — in fact, he had nothing to eat. 

Then, all of a sudden, along came Percival, 
the kind old circus dog, and he barked at that 
fox, and nipped his tail and the fox ran away, 
and Kittie and Bully were then safe. Bully 
came off the log, and Kittie came down out of 
the tree and they both went on home after thank- 
ing Percival most kindly. 

Now, in case my little girl’s tricycle doesn’t 
roll down hill and bunk into the peanut man and 
make him spill his ice cream, I’ll tell you next 
about Bawly helping his teacher. 


STORY XXVII 


HOW BAWLY HELPED HIS TEACHER 

It was quite warm in the schoolroom -one day, 
and the teacher of the animal children, who was 
a nice young lady robin, had all the windows 
open. But even then it was still warm, and the 
pupils, including Bully and Bawly No-Tail, the 
frog boys, and Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wib- 
blewobble, the ducks, weren’t doing much study- 
ing. 

Every now and then they would look out of 
the window toward the green fields, and the cool, 
pleasant woods, where the yellow and purple 
violets were growing, and they wished they were 
out there instead of in school. 

“My, it’s hot!” whispered Bully to Bawly, 
and of course it was wrong to whisper in school, 
but perhaps he didn’t think. 

“Yes, I wish we could go swimming,” an- 
swered Bawly, and the teacher heard the frog 
brothers talking together. 

“ Oh, Bully and Bawly,” she said, as she 
turned around from the blackboard, where she 
174 


How Bawly Helped His Teacher 175 


was drawing a picture of a house, so the children 
could better learn how to spell it, “I am sorry 
to hear you whispering. You will both have to 
stay in after school.” 

Well, of course Bully and Bawly didn’t like 
that, but when you do wrong you have to suffer 
for it, and when the other animal boys and girls 
ran out after school, to play marbles and base- 
ball, and skip rope, and jump hop-scotch and 
other games, the frog boys had to stay in. 

They sat in the quiet schoolroom, and the 
robin teacher did some writing in her books. 
And Bawly looked out of the window over at 
the baseball game. And Bully looked out of 
the window over toward the swimming pond. 
And the teacher looked out of the window at the 
cool woods, where those queer flowered Jack-in- 
the-pulpits grew, and she too, wished she was out 
there instead of in the schoolroom. 

“ Well, if you two boys are sorry you whis- 
pered, and promise that you won’t do it again, 
you may go,” said the teacher after a while, when 
she had looked out of the window once more. 
“ You know it isn’t really wicked to whisper in 
school, only it makes you forget to study, and 
sometimes it makes other children forget to 
study, and that’s where the wrong part comes 


176 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ I’m sony, teacher,” said Bully. 

“You may go,” said the young robin lady 
with a smile. “ How about you, Bawly? ” 

“ I’m not! ” he exclaimed, real cross-like, “ and 
I’ll whisper again,” for all the while Bawly had 
been thinking how mean the teacher was to keep 
him in when he wanted to go out and play ball. 

The robin lady teacher looked very much sur- 
prised at the frog boy, but she only said, “ Very 
well, Bawly. Then you can’t go.” 

So Bully hurried out, and Bawly and the 
teacher stayed there. 

Bawly kept feeling worse and worse, and he 
began to wish that he had said he was sorry. He 
looked at the teacher, and he saw that she was 
gazing out of the window again, toward the 
woods, where there were little white flowers, like 
stars, growing by the cool, green ferns. And 
Bawly noticed how tired the teacher looked, and 
as he watched he was sure he saw a tear in each 
of her bright eyes. And finally she turned to him 
and said: 

It is so nice out of doors, Bawly, that I can’t 
keep you here any longer, no matter whether you 
are sorry or not. But I hope you’ll be sorry to- 
morrow, and won’t whisper again. For it helps 
me when boys and girls don’t whisper. Run out 
now, and have a good time. I wish I could go, 


How Bawly Helped His Teacher 177 


but I have some work to do,” and then with her 
wing she patted Bawly on his little green head, 
and opened the door for him. 

Bawly felt rather queer as he hopped out, and 
he didn’t feel like playing ball, after all. Instead 
he hopped off to the woods, and sat down under 
a big Jack-in-the-pulpit to think. And he 
thought of how his teacher couldn’t live in the 
nice green country as he did, for she had to stay 
in a boarding-house in the city, to be near her 
school, and she couldn’t see the flowers growing 
in the woods as often as could Bawly, for she 
nearly always had to stay in after school to write 
in the report-books. 

44 I — I wish I hadn’t whispered,” Bawly said 
to himself. 4 4 1 — I’m going to help teacher after 
this. I’ll tell her I’m sorry, and — and I guess 
I’ll bring her some flowers for her desk.” 

Every one wondered what made Bawly so 
quiet that evening at home. He studied his les- 
sons, and he didn’t want to go out and play ball 
with Bully. 

44 1 hope he isn’t going to be sick,” said his 
mamma, anxious-like. 

44 Oh! I guess maybe he’s got a touch of 
water-lily fever,” said Grandpa Croaker. 44 A 
few days of swimming will make him all right 
again.” 


178 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Bawly got up very early the next morning, and 
without telling any one where he was going he 
hopped over to the woods, and gathered a lot of 
flowers. 

Oh, such a quantity as he picked ! There were 
purple violets, and yellow ones, and white ones, 
and some wild, purple asters, and some blue 
fringed gentian, and some lovely light-purple 
wild geraniums, and several Jacks-in-the-pulpit, 
and many other kinds of flowers. And he made 
them into a nice bouquet with some ferns on the 
outside. 

Then, just as he was hopping to school, what 
should happen but that a great big alligator 
jumped out of the bushes at him. 

“Ha! What are you doing in my woods,’’ 
asked the alligator, crossly. 

“ If — if you please, I’m getting some flowers 
for my teacher, because I whispered,” said Bawly. 

“ Oh, in that case it’s all right,” said the alli- 
gator, smacking his jaws. “ I like school teach- 
ers. Give her my regards,” and would you be- 
lieve it? the savage creature crawled off, taking 
his double- jointed tail with him, and didn’t hurt 
Bawly a bit. The flowers made the alligator feel 
kind and happy. 

Well, Bawly got to school all right, before any 
of the other children did, and he put the flowers 


How Bawly Helped His Teacher 179 


on teacher’s desk, and he wrote a little note, say- 
ing: 

“ Dear teacher, I’m sorry I whispered, but 
I’m going to help you to-day, and not talk.” 

And Bawly didn’t. It was quite hard in 
school that day, but at last it was over. And, 
just when the children were going home, the 
robin lady teacher said : 

4 4 Boys and girls, you have all helped me very 
much to-day by being good, and I thank you. 
And something else helped me. It was these 
flowers that Bawly brought me, for they remind 
me of the woods where I used to play when I 
was a little girl,” and then she smelled of the 
flowers, and Bawly saw something like two drops 
of water fall from the teacher’s eyes right into 
one of the Jacks-in-the-pulpit. I wonder if it 
was water? 

And then school was over and all the children 
ran out to play and Bawly thought he never had 
had so much fun in all his life as when he and 
Bully and some of the others had a ball game, and 
Bawly knocked a flne home run. 

Now, in case the cuckoo clock doesn’t fall 
down off the wall and spatter the rice pudding all 
over the parlor carpet, I’ll tell you in the story 
after this one about Bully and Sammie Littletail. 


STORY XXVIII 


BULLY AND SAMMIE LITTLETAIL 

One day when the nice young lady robin 
school teacher, about whom I told you last night, 
called the roll of her class, to see if all the animal 
children were there, Samuel Littletail, the rab- 
bit boy, didn’t answer. 

“Why, I wonder where Sammie can be?” 
asked the teacher. “ Has anyone seen him this 
morning? ” 

They all shook their heads, and Bully No- Tail, 
the frog boy, answered: 

“If you please, teacher, perhaps his sister, 
Susie, knows.” 

“ Oh, of course! Why didn’t I think to ask 
her?” said the teacher. So she looked over on 
the girls’ side of the room, but, would you be- 
lieve it? Susie, the rabbit girl, wasn’t there 
either. 

“ That is very odd,” said the teacher, “ both 
Sammie and Susie out! I hope they haven’t the 
epizootic, or the mumps, or carrot fever, or any- 
180 


Bully and Sammie Littletail 


181 


thing like that. Well, we’ll go on with our les- 
sons, and perhaps they will come in later.” 

So the first thing the pupils did was to sing a 
little song, and though I can’t make up very 
nice ones, I’ll do the best I can to give you an 
idea of it. This is how it went, to the tune, 
“ .Turn- Turn- Turn, Tiddle De-um!” 

Good morning! How are you? 

We hope you’re quite well. 

We’re feeling most jolly. 

So hark to us spell. 

,C-A and a T, with 
A dot on the eye. 

Makes cat, dog or rat, 

Or a bird in the sky. 

Take two and two more. 

What have you? ’Tis five! 

What? Four? Oh, of course. 

See the B in the hive. 

Now sing the last verse. 

Ah, isn’t it pretty? 

We’re glad that you like 
Our dear little kittie. 


182 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Well, after the children had sung that they all 
looked around to see if Sammie or Susie had 
come in, but they hadn’t, and then the lessons 
began, and everyone got a perfect mark. Still 
the rabbit children didn’t come, and after school 
Bully No-Tail said: 

“ I think I’ll stop at Sammie’s house and see 
what is the matter.” 

“ I wish you would,” spoke the teacher, “ and 
then you can tell us to-morrow. I hope he is not 
ill.” 

But Sammie was worse than ill, as Bully very 
soon found out when he got to the house. He 
found Mr. and Mrs. Littletail very much excited. 
Mrs. Littletail was crying, and so was Susie, and 
as for Nurse Jane Fuzzy- Wuzzy, the muskrat 
lady, she was washing up the dishes so fast that 
she broke a cup and saucer and dropped a knife 
and spoon. And Uncle Wiggily Longears was 
limping around on his crutch, striped red, white 
and blue like a barber pole, and saying: “ Oh 
dear! Oh dear me! Oh hum suz dud.” 

“ Why, whatever has happened? ” asked 
Bully. “ Is Sammie dead? ” 

“ Worse than that,” said Susie, wiping her 
eyes on her apron. 

“Much worse,” chimed in Uncle Wiggily. 
“ J ust think. Bully, when Sammie was starting 


Bully and Sammie Littletail 


183 


off for school this morning, he went off in the 
woods a little way to see if he could find a wild 
carrot, when a big boy rushed up, grabbed him, 
and put him in a bag before any of us could save 
him! And now he’s gone! Completely gone!” 

“ So that’s why he didn’t come to school to- 
day,” said Nurse Jane sadly. 

“ And I didn’t feel like coming either,” spoke 
Susie, crying some more. “ I tried to find Sam- 
mie, but I couldn’t. Oh dear! Boo hoo! ” 

“ We all tried to find him,” said Mr. Little- 
tail sadly. 

“ But we can’t,” added Mrs. Littletail still 
more sadly. “ Our Sammie is gone! The bad 
boy has him! ” 

“ Oh, that is awful! ” cried Bully. “ But I’ll 
see if I can’t find him for you.” 

So Bully hopped off through the woods, 
hoping he could find where the boy lived who 
had taken Sammie away with him. 

“ And if I find him I’ll help Sammie to get 
away,” thought Bully. So he went on and on, 
but for a long time he couldn’t find Sammie. 
For, listen, the boy who had caught the little rab- 
bit had taken Sammie home, and had made a 
cage for him. 

“I’m going to keep you forever,” said the 
boy, looking in through the wire cage at Sammie. 


184 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ I’ve always wanted a rabbit and now I have 
one.” Well, poor Sammie asked the boy to let 
him go, but the boy didn’t understand rabbit lan- 
guage, and maybe he wouldn’t have let the bunny 
go, anyhow. 

Well, it was getting dark, and Sammie was 
very much frightened in his cage, and he was 
wondering whether any of his friends would find 
him, and help him escape. 

“ I’ll call out loud, so they’ll know where to 
look for me,” he said, and he grunted as loudly as 
he could and whistled through his twinkling nose. 

Well, it happened that just then Bully was 
hopping up a little hill, and he heard Sammie 
calling. 

“ That’s Sammie! ” exclaimed Bully. “ Now, 
if I can only rescue him! ” 

So the frog boy hopped on farther, and pretty 
soon he came to the yard of the house where the 
boy lived. And Bully peeped in through a knot- 
hole in the fence, and he saw Sammie in the cage. 

“ I’m here, Sammie!” cried Bully through 
the hole. “ Don’t be afraid. I’ll get you out of 
there.” 

“ Oh, I’m so glad! ” cried Sammie, clapping his 
paws. 

But, after he had said it, Bully saw that it 
wasn’t going to be very easy to get Sammie out. 


Bully and Sammie Littletail 


185 


for the cage was very strong. The boy was in 
the house cutting up some cabbage for the rabbit, 
and the little frog knew he would have to work 
very quickly if he was to rescue Sammie. 

So Bully hunted until he found a place 
where he could crawl under the fence, and 
he went close up to the cage, and what did he do 
hut hop inside, thinking he could unlock the door 
for Sammie. For Bully was little enough to hop 
through between the holes in the wire, but 
Sammie was too big to get out that way. 

But Bully couldn’t open the door because the 
lock was too strong, and the frog boy couldn’t 
break the wire. 

“ Oh, if Nurse Jane Fuzzy- Wuzzy were only 
here!” he exclaimed, “ she could get us out of 
this trap very soon. But she isn’t.” 

“ Let’s both together try to break it,” pro- 
posed Sammie, but they couldn’t do it. I don’t 
know what they would have done, and perhaps 
Sammie would have had to stay there forever, 
but at that moment along came the old alligator. 
He looked through the knothole in the fence, and 
he saw Sammie and Bully in the cage. 

“ Ah, here is where I get a good dinner ! ” 
thought the alligator, so with one savage and 
swooping sweep of his big, scaly tail, he smashed 
down the fence and broke the cage all to pieces. 


186 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


but he didn’t hurt Bully or Sammie, very luckily, 
for they were in a far corner. 

“ Now’s our chance! ” cried the frog. “ Run, 
Sammie, run! ” And they both scudded away as 
fast as they could before the alligator could catch 
them, or even before the boy could run out to see 
what the noise was. And when the alligator saw 
the boy the savage creature flurried and scurried 
away, taking his scalery-ailery tail with him, and 
the boy was very much surprised when he saw 
that the rabbit was gone. 

But Sammie and Bully got safely home, and 
the next day Sammie went to school as usual, 
just as if nothing had happened, and every one 
said Bully was very brave to help him. 

So that’s all for to-night, if you please, and in 
case the housecleaning man gets all the ice cream 
up from under the sitting-room matting, and 
makes a snowball of it for the poll parrot to play 
horse with, I’ll tell you next about Bully and 
Bawly going to the circus.” 







STORY XXIX 


BULLY AND BAWLY AT THE CIRCUS 

“ Oh, mamma, may we igo? ” exclaimed 
Bawly No-Tail one day as he came home from 
school, and hopped into the house with such a 
big hop, that he hopped right up into the frog 
lady’s lap. 

“ Go where? ” asked Bawly’s mother, wonder- 
ing if the alligator were after her son. 

“ Oh, do please let us go! ” cried Bully, hop- 
ping in after his brother. Bully tried to stand on 
his head, but his foot slipped and he nearly fell 
into the ink bottle. “ Please let us go, mother? ” 

“ Where ? Where ? ” she asked again, asiBawly 
hopped out of her lap. 

“ To the circus! ” cried Bully. 

“ It’s coming! ” exclaimed Bawly. 

“ Down in the vacant lots,” went on Bully. 

“ Oh, you ought to see the posters! Lions 
and tigers and elephants, and men jumping in 
the air, and horses and — and — ” 

Bawly had to stop for breath then, and so he 
187 


188 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


couldn’t say any more. Neither could Bully. 
Oh, but they were excited, let me tell you. 

“May we go?” they both cried out again. 

“ Well, I’ll see,” began their mother slowly. 
“ I don’t know — ” 

“ Oh, I guess you’d better let them go,” spoke 
up Grandpa .Croaker in his deepest, rumbling 
voice. “ I — I think I can spare the time to look 
after them. I don’t really want to go, you know, 
as I was going to play a game of checkers with 
Uncle Wiggily Longears, but I guess I can take 
the boys to the circus. Ahem! ” 

“ Oh, goody! ” cried Bawly, jumping up and 
down. 

“ Where are you going? ’’asked their papa, 
just then coming in from the wall-paper factory. 

“ To the circus,” said Bawly. “ Grandpa 
Croaker will take us.” 

“ Ha! Hum! ” exclaimed Papa No-Tail. “ I 
am very busy, but I guess I can spare the time to 
take you. We won’t bother Grandpa.” 

“ Oh, it’s no bother — none at all, I assure 
you,” quickly spoke the grandpa frog, in a 
thundering, rumbling voice. “We can both take 
them.” 

“Well, I never heard of such a thing!” ex- 
claimed Mamma No-Tail. “Any one would 
think you two old men frogs wanted to go as 


Bully and Bawly at the Circus 189 


much as the boys do. But I guess it will be all 
right.” 

So Bully and Bawly and their papa and their 
grandpa went to the circus next day. And what 
do you think? Just as they were buying their 
tickets if they didn’t meet Uncle WiggilyLong- 
ears! And he had Sammie and Susie, the rabbits, 
with him, and there was Aunt Lettie, the old 
lady goat, with the three Wibhle wobble children, 
and many other little friends of Bully and 
Bawly. 

Well, that was a fine circus! There were lots 
of tents with flags on, and outside were men sel- 
ling pink lemonade and peanuts for the ele- 
phant, and toy balloons, only those weren’t for the 
elephant, you know, and there were men shout- 
ing, and lots of excitement, and there was a side 
show, with pictures outside the tent of a man 
swallowing swords by the dozen, and also knives 
and forks, and another picture of a lady wrap- 
ping a fat snake around her neck, because she was 
cold, I guess, and then you could hear the lions 
roaring and the elephants trumpeting, and the 
band was playing, and the peanut wagons were 
whistling like teakettles, and — and — Oh ! why, if 
I write any more about that circus I’ll want to 
take my typewriter, and put it away in a dark 
closet, and go to the show myself! 


190 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


But anyhow it was very fine, and pretty soon 
Bully and Bawly and their papa and grandpa 
were in the tent looking at the animals. They 
fed the elephant peanuts until they had none for 
themselves, and they looked at the camel with 
two humps, and at the one with only one hump, 
because I s’pose he didn’t have money enough to 
buy two, and then they went in the tent where the 
real show was. 

Well it went off very fine. The big parade 
was over, and the men were doing acts on the 
trapeze, and the trained seals were playing ball 
with their noses, and the clowns were cutting up 
funny capers. And all at once a man, with a 
shiny hat on, came out in the middle of the ring, 
and said: 

“ Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to call 
your attention to our jumping dog, Nero. He 
is the greatest jumping dog in the world, and he 
will jump over an elephant’s back! ” 

Well, the people clapped like anything after 
that, and a clown came out, leading a dog. 
Everybody was all excited, especially when 
another clown led out a big elephant. Then it 
was the turn of the dog to jump over the ele- 
phant. Well, he tried it, but he didn’t go over. 
The clown petted him, and gave him a sweet 
cracker, and the dog tried it again, but he 


Bully and Bawly at the Circus 191 


couldn’t do it. Then he tried once more and he 
fell right down under the elephant, and the ele- 
phant lifted Nero up in his trunk, and set him 
gently down on some straw. 

Then the clown took off his funny, pointed hat 
and said: 

44 Ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry, but 
my poor dog is sick and he can’t jump to-day, 
and I have nothing else that can jump over the 
elephant’s back.” 

Every one felt quite disappointed at that, but 
still they were sorry for the poor dog. The clown 
led him away, and the other clown was leading 
the elephant off, when Bully said to Bawly: 

44 Don’t you think we could do that jump? 
We once did a big jump to get away from the al- 
ligator, you know.” 

44 Let’s try it,” said Bawly. 44 Then the people 
won’t be disappointed. Come on.” So they 
slipped from their seats, when their papa and 
grandpa were talking to Uncle Wiggily about 
the trained seals, and those two frog boys just 
hopped right into the middle of the circus ring. 
At first a monkey policeman was going to put 
them out, but they made motions that they 
wanted to jump over the elephant, for they 
couldn’t speak policeman talk, you know. 

44 Ah ha! I see what they want,” said the kind 


192 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


clown. “ Well, I don’t believe they can do it, but 
let them try. It may amuse the people.” So he 
made the elephant go back to his place, and every 
one became interested in what Bully and Bawly 
were going to do. 

“ Are you already? ” asked Bully of his 
brother. 

“Yes,” answered Bawly. 

“ Then take a long breath, and jump as hard 
as you can,” said Bully. So they both took long 
breaths, crouched down on their hind legs, and 
then both together, simultaneously and most ex- 
traordinarily, they jumped. My, what a jump it 
was! Bigger than the time when they got away 
from the alligator. Right over the elephant’s 
back they jumped, and they landed on a pile of 
soft straw so they weren’t hurt a bit. My! You 
should have heard the people cheer and clap ! 

“ Good! ” cried the clown. “ That was a great 
jump! Will you stay in the circus with me? 
I will pay you as much as I pay my dog.” 

“Oh, no!” they must go home,” said their 
papa, as Bully and Bawly went back to their 
seats. “ That is, after the circus is over,” said 
Mr. No-Tail. 

So the frog boys saw the rest of the show% and 
afterward all their friends told them how brave it 
was to do what they had done. 


Bully and Bawly at the Circus 193 


And for a long time after that whenever any 
one mentioned what good jumpers Bully and 
Bawly were, Sammie Littletail would say: 

“Ah, but you should have seen them in the 
circus one day.” 

And on the next page, if the lilac hush in our 
back yard doesn’t reach in through the window, 
and take off my typewriter ribbon to wear to 
Sunday school, I’ll tell you about Bully and 
Bawly playing Indian. 


STORY XXX 


BULLY AND BAWLY PLAY INDIAN 

It happened, once upon a time, after the circus 
had gone away from the place where Bully and 
Bawly No-Tail, the frogs, lived that a Wild 
West show came along. 

And my goodness ! There were cowboys and 
cowgirls, and buffaloes and steers and men with 
lassos, and Mexicans and Cossacks, and Indians ! 
Real Indians, mind you, that used to be wild, 
and scalp people, which was very impolite to do, 
but they didn’t know any better; the Indians 
didn’t I mean. Then they got tame and didn’t 
scalp people any more. Yes, sir, they were real 
Indians, and they had real feathers on them ! 

Of course the feathers didn’t belong to the 
Indians, the same as a chicken’s feathers, or a 
turkey’s feathers belong to them. That is, the 
feathers didn’t grow on the Indians, even if they 
did seem to. No, the Indians put them on for 
ornaments, just as ladies put plumes on their 
hats with long hatpins. 

Well, of course, Bully and Bawly and the 
194 


Bully and Bawly Play Indian 195 

other boys all went to the Wild West show, and 
when they got home about all they did for several 
days was to play cowboys or Indians. Indians 
mostly, for they liked them the best. And the 
boys gave regular warwhoop cries. 

“ We’ll have a new game,” said Bully to 
Bawly one day. “ We’ll dress up like the Indians 
did, and we’ll go off in the woods, and we’ll see 
if we can capture white people.” 

“ Real? ” asked Bawly. 

“ No, only make-believe ones. And we’ll 
build a camp fire, and take our lunch, and sleep 
in the woods.” 

“ After dark? ” asked Bawly. 

“ Sure. Why not? Don’t Indians sleep in the 
woods after dark? ” 

“ Oh, but they have real guns and knives to 
kill the bears with,” objected Bawly, “ and our 
guns and knives will only be wooden.” 

“ Well, maybe it will be better to only pretend 
it’s night in the woods,” agreed Bully. “ We can 
go in a dark place under the trees, and make be- 
lieve it’s night, and that will do just as well.” 

So they agreed to do that way, and for the 
next few days the frog boys were busy making 
themselves up to look like Indians. Their mother 
let them take some old blankets, and they got 
some red and green chalk to put on their faces 


196 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


for war paint, and they found a lot of feathers 
over at the homes of Charlie and Arabella Chick, 
and the three Wibblewobble duck children. 
These feathers they put around their heads, and 
down their backs, as the Indians in the Wild West 
show did. 

“ Now I guess we’re ready to start off and 
hunt make-believe white people,” said Bawly one 
Saturday morning when there wasn’t any school. 

“ Have you the lunch? We mustn’t forget 
that,” spoke Bully. 

“ Yes, I have it,” his brother replied. “ Take 
your bow and arrow, and I’ll carry the wooden 
gun.” 

Off they started as brave as an elephant when 
he has a bag of peanuts in his trunk. They 
hurried to the woods, so none of their friends 
would see them, for Bully and Bawly wanted to 
have it all a surprise. And pretty soon they were 
under the trees where it was quite dark. Bawly 
gave a big hop, and landed up front beside his 
brother. 

“ You mustn’t walk here,” said Bully. 
“ Indians always go in single file, one behind the 
other. Get behind me.” 

“ I — I’m afraid,” said Bawly. 

‘‘Of what?” asked his brother. “Indians 
are never afraid.” 


Bully and Bawly Play Indian 197 


“ I — I’m afraid I might scare somebody,” 
said Bawly. “ I — I look so fierce you know. I 
just saw myself reflected back there in a pond 
of water that was like a looking-glass and I’m 
enough to scare anybody.” 

“ So much the better,” said his brother. “ You 
can scare the make-believe white people whom 
we are going to capture and scalp. Get in behind 
me. 

“ Wouldn’t it be just as well if I pretended to 
walk behind you, and still stayed up front here, 
beside you? ” asked Bawly, looking behind him. 

“ Oh, I guess so,” answered his brother. So 
the two frog boys, who looked just like Indians, 
went on side by side though the woods. They 
looked all around them for something to capture, 
but all that they saw was an old lady hoptoad, 
going home from market. 

“ Shall we capture her? ” asked Bawly, getting 
his bow and arrow ready. 

“ No,” replied his brother. “ She might tell 
mamma, and, anyhow, we wouldn’t want to hurt 
any of mamma’s friends. We’ll capture some of 
the fellows.” But Bully and Bawly couldn’t 
seem to find any one, not even a make-believe 
white person, and they were just going to sit 
down and eat their lunch, anyhow, when they 
heard some one shouting : 


198 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


“ Help ! Help ! Oh, some one please Kelp 
me! ” called a voice. 

“Some one’s in trouble!” cried Bully. 
“ Let’s help them! ” 

So he and his brother bravely hurried on 
through the woods, and soon they came to a place 
where they could hear the voice more plainly. 
Then they looked between the bushes, and what 
should they see but poor Arabella Chick, and a 
big hand-organ monkey had hold of her, and the 
monkey was slowly pulling all the feathers from 
Arabella’s tail. 

“ Oh, don’t, please! ” begged the little chicken 
girl. “ Leave my feathers alone.” 

“No, I shan’t!” answered the monkey. “I 
want the feathers to make a feather duster, to 
dust off my master’s hand-organ,” and with that 
he yanked out another handful. 

“ Oh, will no one help me? ” cried poor Ara- 
bella, trying to get away. “ I’ll lose all my 
feathers ! ” 

“ We must help her,” said Bawly to Bully. 

“We surely must,” agreed Bully. “ Get all 
ready, and we’ll shoot our arrows at that monkey, 
and then we’ll go out with our make-believe guns, 
and shoot bang-bang-pretend-bullets at him, and 
then we’ll holler like the wild Indians, and the 
monkey will be so frightened that he’ll run 
away.” 


Bully and Bawly Play Indian 199 


Well, they did that. Zip-whizz! went two 
make-believe arrows at the monkey. One hit him 
on the nose, and one on the leg, and the pain was 
real, not make-believe. Then out from the 
bushes jumped Bully and Bawly, firing their 
make-believe guns as fast as they could. 

Then they yelled like real Indians and when 
the monkey saw the red and green and yellow 
and purple and pink and red feathers on the frog 
Indians and saw their colored-chalk faces he was 
so frightened that he wiggled his tail, blinked his 
eyes, clattered his teeth together, and, dropping 
Arabella Chick, off he scrambled up a tree after 
a make-believe cocoanut. 

“Now, you’re safe!” cried Bully to the 
chicken girl. 

“Yes,” said Bawly, “ being Indians was some 
good after all, even if we didn’t capture any 
make-believe white people to scalp.” 

So they sat down under the trees, and Arabella 
very kindly helped them to eat the lunch, and she 
said she thought Indians were just fine, and as 
brave as soldiers. 

So now we’ve reached the end of this story, 
and as you’re sleepy you’d better go to bed, and 
in case the piano key doesn’t open the front door, 
and go out to play hop-scotch on the sidewalk, 
I’ll tell you next about the Frogs’ farewell hop. 


STORY XXXI 


THE FROGS’ FAREWELL HOP 

One night Papa No-Tail, the frog gentleman, 
came home from his work in the wallpaper fac- 
tory with a bundle of something under his left 
front leg. 

“ What have you there, papa? ” asked Bawly, 
as he scratched his nose on a rough stone; “is it 
ice cream cones for us? ” 

“No,” said Mr. No- Tail, “it is not anything 
like that; but, anyhow, the weather is almost 
warm enough for ice cream.” 

“Is it some new kind of wallpaper that you 
hopped on to-day after you dipped your feet 
in red and green ink? ” asked Bully. 

“ No,” replied his papa. “ I have here some 
wire to tack over the windows, to keep out the 
flies and mosquitoes, for it is getting to be sum- 
mer now, and those insects will soon be flying and 
buzzing around.” 

So after supper Mr. No-Tail, and his two 
hoys, Bully and Bawly, tacked the wire mosquito 
netting on the windows, and when they were all 
200 


The Frogs’ Farewell Hop 


201 


done Mr. No-Tail went down to the corner drug 
store and he bought a quart of ice cream, the 
kind all striped like a sofa cushion, and he and 
his wife and Bully and Bawly sat out on the 
porch eating it with spoons out of a dish, just 
as real as anything. 

“ Oh dear me ! There’s a mosquito buzzing 
around! ” suddenly exclaimed Mamma No- Tail, 
as she ate the last of her cream. “ They are on 
hand early this year. I’m going in the house.” 

“I’ll go get my bean shooter, and see if I can 
kill that mosquito ! ” exclaimed Bawly, who once 
went hunting after the buzzers, and shot quite a 
number. But land sakes! it was so dark on the 
porch that he couldn’t see the buzzing mosquitoes 
though he blew a number of beans about, and 
one hit Uncle Wiggily Longears on the nose, 
just as the old gentleman rabbit was hopping over 
to play checkers with Grandpa Croaker. But 
Uncle Wiggily forgave Bawly, as it was an ac- 
cident, and as there was a little ice cream left, 
the old gentleman rabbit and Grandpa Croaker 
ate it up. 

Well, something happened that night when 
they had all gone to bed. Along about 12 
o’clock, when it was all still and quiet, and when 
the little mice were just coming out to play hide 
and seek and look for some crackers and cheese. 


202 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


Bawly No-Tail felt some one pulling him out of 
bed. 

“ Here! Hold on! Don’t do that, Bully! ” he 
cried. 

“ What’s the matter? ” asked his brother. 
“ Are you dreaming or talking in your sleep ? 
I’m not doing anything.” 

“Aren’t you pulling me out of bed?” asked 
Bawly, and he had to grab hold of the bedpost to 
prevent himself falling to the floor. 

“ Why, no, I’m in my own bed,” answered 
Bully. “Oh, dear me! Oh, suz dud! Some 
one’s pulling me, too! ” And he let out such a 
yell that Mamma No-Tail came running in with 
a light. And what do you think she saw? 

Why two, great, big buzzing mosquitoes flew 
out of the window through a hole in the wire 
netting, and it was those mosquitoes who had 
been trying to pull Bully and Bawly out of bed, 
so they could fly away with them to eat them up. 

“ Oh, my! How bold those mosquitoes are this 
year!” exclaimed the mamma frog. “They 
actually bit a hole in the wire screen.” 

“ They did, eh? ” cried Papa No-Tail. “ Well, 
I’ll fix that!” So he got a hammer and some 
more wire, and he mended the hole which the 
mosquitoes had made. Then Bully and Bawly 
went to sleep again. They were afraid the mos- 


The Frogs’ Farewell Hop 


203 


quitoes would come in once more, but though the 
savage insects buzzed around outside for quite a 
while, the screen was too strong for them this 
time, and they didn’t get in the house. 

44 If this keeps on,” said Papa No-Tail, as he 
hopped off to work next morning, we’ll have to 
go to a place where there are no mosquitoes.” 

Well, that night the same thing happened. 
Along about 1 o’clock Bully felt some one pull- 
ing him out of bed, and he cried, and his mamma 
came with a light, and there was another mos- 
quito, twice as big as before, with a long sharp 
bill, and long, dingly-dangly legs, and buzzy- 
uzzy wings, just skeddadling out of the window. 

“There! They’ve bitten another hole in the 
screen! ” cried Mrs. No-Tail. 44 Oh, this is get- 
ting terrible! ” 

44 I’ll put double screens on to-morrow,” said 
Papa No-Tail, and he did. But would you be- 
lieve it? Those mosquitoes still came. The big 
ones couldn’t make their way through the two 
nets, but lots of the little ones came in. One 
would manage to get his head through the wire, 
and then all his friends would push and pull on 
him until he was inside, then another would 
wiggle in, and that’s how they did it. Then they 
went and hid down cellar, until they grew big 
enough to bite. 


204 


Bully and Bawly No- Tail 


And, though these mosquitoes couldn’t pull 
Bully and Bawly out of bed, for the pestiferous 
insects weren’t strong enough, they nipped the 
frog boys all over, until their legs and arms and 
faces and noses and ears smarted and burned 
terribly, and their mamma had to put witch 
hazel and talcum powder on the bites. 

“ I can see that we’ll soon have to get away 
from here,” said Papa No-Tail, one morning, 
when the mosquitoes had been very bad and 
troublesome in the night. “ They come right 
through the screens,” he said. “ Now we’ll hop 
off to the mountains or seashore, where there are 
no mosquitoes.” 

“ Don’t you s’pose Bully and I could sit up 
some night and kill them with our bean shoot- 
ers? ” said Bawly. 

“ You may try,” said his papa. So the two 
frog boys tried it that night. They sat up real 
late, and they shot at several mosquitoes that 
came in, and they hit some. And then Bully and 
Bawly fell asleep, and the first thing you know 
the mosquitoes buzzing outside heard them snor- 
ing, and they bit a big hole right through the 
double screen this time, and were just pulling 
Bully and Bawly out of bed, when the frog boys’ 
mamma heard them crying, and came with the 
lamp, scaring the savage insects away. 


The Frogs’ Farewell Hop 


205 


“ There is no use talking! ” said Papa No- 
Tail. “ We will hop off in the morning. We’ll 
say good-by to this place.” 

So the next morning the frogs packed up, and 
they sent word to all their friends that they were 
going to take their farewell hop to the moun- 
tains, where there were no more mosquitoes. 

Oh such a crowd as gathered to see them hop 
away! There was Sammie and Susie Littletail, 
and J ohnnie and Billie Bushytail, and Lulu and 
Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble, and Munchie 
and Dottie Trot, and Peetie and Jackie Bow 
Wow, and Uncle Wiggily Longears and Nurse 
J ane Fuzzy- Wuzzy and Buddy Pigg and all the 
other animal friends. 

Away hopped Papa No-Tail, and away 
hopped Mamma No-Tail, and then Grandpa 
Croaker and Bully and Bawly hopped after 
them, calling good-bys to all their friends. 
Every one waved his handkerchief and Susie 
Littletail and Jennie Chipmunk cried a little bit, 
for they liked Bully and Bawly very much, and 
didn’t like to see them hop away. 

And what do you think? Some of the mos- 
quitoes were so mean that they flew out of the 
woods and tried to bite the frogs as they were 
hopping away. But Bully and Bawly had their 
bean shooters and they shot a number of the 


206 


Bully and Bawly No-Tail 


creatures, so the rest soon flew off and hid in a 
hollow tree. 

“I’m coming to see you some time!” called 
Uncle Wiggily Longears to Bully and Bawly. 
“ Be good boys! ” 

“ Yes, we’ll be good! ” promised Bully. 

“ As good as we can,” added his brother 
Bawly, as he tickled Grandpa Croaker with the 
bean shooter. 

Then the No-Tail family of frogs hopped on 
and on, until they came to a nice place in the 
woods, where there was a little pond, covered 
with duck weed, in which they could swim. 

“ Here is where we will make our new home,” 
said Papa No-Tail. 

“ Oh, how lovely it is,” said Mrs. No-Tail, as 
she sat down to rest under a toadstool umbrella, 
for the sun was shining. 

“Ger-umph! Ger-umph!” said Grandpa 
Croaker, in his deep, bass voice. “ Very nice in- 
deed.” 

“ Fine! ” cried Bully. 

“Handy!” said Bawly. “Come on in for a 
swim,” and into the pond jumped the two frog 
boys. And they lived happily there in the woods 
for ever after. 

So now we have come to the end of this book. 
But, if you would like to hear them, I have more 


The Frogs’ Farewell Hop 


207 


stories to tell you. And I think I will make the 
next book about some goat children. Nannie 
and Billie Wagtail w r ere their names, and the 
book will be called after them — “ Nannie and 
Billie Wagtail.” The goat children wagged 
their little, short tails, and did the funniest 
things ; eating pictures off tin cans, and nibbling 
bill-board circus posters of elephants and lions 
and tigers. And there was Uncle Butter, the 
goat gentleman, who pasted wallpaper, and 

Aunt Lettie, the old lady goat, and 

But there, I will let you read the book yourself 
and find out all that happened to Nannie and 
Billie Wagtail. And until you do read that, I 
will just say good-bye, for a little while. 


THE END 


JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL 

“Come, boys!” chattered Mrs. Bushytail, the 
lady squirrel, one morning. “You must now 
have a lesson, and learn how to jump.” 

“Yes, indeed!” exclaimed Papa Bushytail. 
“Squirrel boys must know how to jump out of 
tall trees, as well as to crack nuts.” 

“Oh, but I am afraid!” cried Billie, the boy 
squirrel. “I am afraid to jump.” 

“And so am I,” added his brother Johnnie. 

“But you both must learn how to jump!” 
went on Mamma Bushytail, as she nibbled at 
a nut sandwich. 

You have read of Daddy Blake, and Hal 
and Mab, and you will be glad to learn how 
Johnnie and Billie Bushytail learned to jump, 
and do many other things that squirrels should 
do. 

Go to your own book store, and get the vol- 
ume called “Bedtime Stories: Johnnie and Bil- 
lie Bushytail.” It was written by Howard R. 
Garis, who wrote the Daddy books. If your 
store does not have Johnnie and Billie, and the 
colored pictures, send to the publishers, R. F. 
Fenno & Company, 18 East 17th Street, New 
York City, who will send the book on receipt 
of price, and also a fine poster. 


SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL 


“Oh, Susie!” cried Sammie Littletail, the 
boy rabbit, one day, when he and his sister were 
hopping along in the woods. “Oh, Susie, some- 
thing has caught me by the leg!” 

“Why, Sammie! You are fast in a trap!” 
exclaimed Susie, the girl rabbit. “Oh, dear! 
How will you ever get out?” 

“I don’t know,” answered Sammie, sadly. 

“Well, I know,” spoke Susie, bravely. “I 
will go get Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit 
gentleman, to help you out of the trap.” 

Getting into a trap, and out of it again, is only 
one of the thirty-one adventures in the book 
called “Bedtime Stories: Sammie and Susie 
Littletail.” 

You have read of Daddy Blake, and of Hal 
and Mab, his little boy and girl, and Howard 
R. Garis, who wrote about them, also wrote the 
Bedtime books. Y ou can get them at your book 
store, or from the publishers, R. F. Fenno & 
Company, 1 8 East 1 7th Street, New York City. 
Send for a catalog. 


NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL 


Once upon a time, not so very many years 
ago, there were two cute little bear cubs — a boy 
and a girl. They were named Neddie and 
Beckie. 

“Come on, let’s go out for a walk in the 
woods,” said Neddie to Beckie one day. 

“All right,” she answered, “and maybe 
something will happen.” 

Something did. They met a man, with a 
trained bear who could do tricks, and Neddie 
and Beckie ran away from their own cave-home, 
and traveled with this man, learning many 
things. 

Now that you have finished reading the Dad- 
dy books, send and get the volume called “Bed- 
time Stories: Neddie and Beckie Stubtail.” It is 
by Howard R. Garis, who wrote the Bedtimes, 
and R. F. Fenno & Company, of 1 8 East 1 7 th 
Street, New York City, are the publishers. 
They will mail it on receipt of price, if your 
own store does not have it. 

You will like to read about the bears, and see 
the pretty colored pictures in the book. 




































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